A Central Asian year in review

As the end of another year of blogging on the wonderful world of Central Asia draws to a close, I have created my very own Facebook-style ‘year in review’ to recap on my most read articles of 2015.

It’s clear that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have dominated my blog this year in terms of country coverage. The Tajikistan stories I’ve reported have been a mix of positive and negative. Posts from May and July talk about reforms to higher education, but posts from April, June, October and December are more reflective of social and political concerns, whether that be relating to individual student wellbeing, labour migration to Russia or the organization of central government.

April: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/migration-to-russia-from-the-pamirsgbao-tajikistan/

May: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/university-admissions-reform-in-tajikistan/

June: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/tajik-graduates-ordered-to-repay-state-scholarships/

July: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/a-new-islamic-university-for-tajikistan/

October: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/beaten-up-for-asking-questions-at-university-in-tajikistan/

December: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/12/13/president-for-life-is-a-step-too-far/

 

With Kyrgyzstan, an eclectic group of articles was popular this year. These cover gender equality (January), a nostalgic photo tour of Bishkek (August) and a wonderful set of infographics about the student population (November).

January: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/steps-towards-gender-equality-in-kyrgyzstan/

August: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/08/16/a-tour-of-soviet-era-bishkek/

November: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/11/28/kyrgyz-students-2015-who-what-where/

 

Thank you to readers who accessed the two articles I had published this year, on challenges in contemporary higher education in Kyrgyzstan (February) and the dominance of social sciences subjects at English medium instruction universities in Central Asia (September).

February: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/challenges-in-contemporary-higher-education-in-kyrgyzstan-published/

September: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2015/09/23/new-essay-out-the-dominance-of-social-sciences-in-english-medium-instruction-universities-in-central-asia/

 

What could be a better treat to yourself over the holidays than taking the opportunity to have another look at these articles as well as checking out my other pieces??!

With festivities in mind, I leave you with two holiday gifts to see you through to the start of 2016, when I look forward to filling your inboxes with more Central Asian news and views.

The first gift is a link to my most read post of all time, which has since been featured in news stories in media around the world, High heels for higher learning, from April 2013: https://sabzalieva.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/high-heels-for-higher-learning/

My second gift is specifically to all the Tajik school and university students who have recently been banned from putting up Christmas trees for the festive season. To make up for this, I have created an online tree gallery below (including pictures of several in situ in Dushanbe from previous years) to generate some light hearted holiday spirit. Enjoy!