Farideh Heyat

I am an anthropologist and a writer born in Iran to Azeri parents (detailed biography on www.faridehheyat.co.uk). I received my PhD from SOAS, London University in 1999. The focus of my research for many years was on the position of women and gender relations in Azerbaijan. I have published numerous articles and book chapters on the subject. In 2002 my book, Azeri Women in Transition: women in Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan, was published in London by Routledge.

Since my school days in Tehran, I had been curious about life in the Muslim republics of the Soviet Union. For 70 years the Soviet regime had endeavoured to isolate the Muslim republics north of the Iranian border. I was especially interested in the Soviet Azerbaijan which shared strong historical and cultural ties with the Iranian Azerbaijan, south of the border.

Whilst at SOAS I had been reading a lot about the history and cultures of Central Asian societies.

My opportunity to explore the region first hand came in 2002, when I took up a teaching post at a university in Kyrgyzstan. During this year and later in 2008 I was able to travel across and conduct ethnographic research in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. I was discovering a new world, little known in the West, but with so much to offer. This was especially the case for Kyrgyzstan, considered the Switzerland of Central Asia. Here was a land dotted with majestic mountains and green pastures, inhabited by nature loving, friendly people, their government, the most liberal of the Central Asian countries.

Uzbekistan, however, highly autocratic, is far better known abroad due to its very rich history and the legendry cities of Samarkand and Bukhara favoured by tourists. The population in this region are majority Tajik speakers, a language very close to Farsi that I also speak, in addition to Turkish. Given my Iranian background and knowledge of Farsi, I could communicate with local people far better in this region.

My new book, Land of Forty Tribes, published in May 2015, is based on my observations and experience of work and travel in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and my research on the history of Central Asia. It is a story of love, adventure and cultural discoveries, giving fascinating insights into the traditions, legends and history of this long hidden region of the world. The focus of this book is also on women's lives in these countries, giving accounts of many true stories I was told by my students and other local contacts. In addition, I have drawn the often ignored connections between the historical Iranian civilisation and Central Asia.