Ivan Simic Biography

Ivan Simic

I am a gender historian and social policy specialist whose research focuses on gender, religion, and social transformation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. My work situates the history of communist gender policies within a transnational framework, examining how ideas travelled across borders, were adapted in different political and cultural contexts, and shaped everyday life. I have published widely in leading journals and authored two books on gender, communism, and social change. My first book, Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies, explores how Yugoslav communists interpreted and adapted Soviet models to reshape gender relations and society after the Second World War. My second book, Sickle and Veil: Communist Gender Policies Towards Muslim Minorities in Eastern Europe, takes a broader perspective, analysing how communist regimes sought to regulate Muslim communities through gendered policies and how these policies were negotiated across the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.

I teach courses on Eastern Europe and Central Asia that engage with questions of gender, race, religion, and social policy. At Charles University in Prague, I have developed manynew courses in these areas. I am also affiliated with the University of Alberta as an adjunct professor. Before joining Charles University, I held research and teaching positions in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including a postdoctoral fellowship at Carleton University, a research fellowship at Yale University, and fellowships at the University of Graz and the Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia. I have also worked as a research assistant at the University of Calgary and taught at Goldsmiths, University of London, and University College London, where I completed my PhD.

In Canada, I also provide strategic policy advice on a range of social issues.

Contact information: ivan.simich[at]gmail.com

Sickle and Veil: Communist Gender Policies Towards Muslim Minorities in Eastern Europe

My latest book explores how communist gender policies shaped the lives of Muslim communities across Eastern Europe and Eurasia. These policies were often coercive and sometimes violent, placing many people, especially women, in marginal and vulnerable positions. Those most affected were rarely consulted, yet their clothing, bodily practices, and everyday choices were closely monitored and politicised. Across different communist contexts, practices such as veiling, the wearing of the fez, shalvari, circumcision, and even Muslim names were banned, discouraged, or stigmatised.

Sickle and Veil offers a transnational history of these policies by tracing how ideas about gender were developed, circulated across borders, and adapted to local political and social contexts in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. Drawing on extensive archival research in six languages and across several countries, the book highlights the connections between regimes that are often studied separately. It follows key turning points, internal debates, and policy ruptures, challenging established national narratives and showing how Soviet experiences in Central Asia shaped the approaches of other communist states towards Muslim populations.

The book moves between high politics and everyday life. It pays particular attention to the voices of those who resisted, complied with, or negotiated these interventions in their own ways. In doing so, it shows how gender, religion, and power intersected in the communist imagination, and how policies directed at religious minorities were driven not only by atheism, but also by broader anxieties about modernity, conformity, and social control.

Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies

Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies My first book explores Soviet influences on Yugoslav gender policies, examining how Yugoslav communists interpreted, adapted, and used Soviet ideas to change Yugoslav society. The book sheds new light on the role of Soviet models in producing Yugoslav family and reproductive laws and in framing the understandings of gender, which affected key policies such as the collectivisation of agriculture, labour policies, policies towards Muslim populations, and policies concerning youth sexuality.
Through a gender analysis of all these policies, this book points to the difficulties of applying Soviet solutions in Yugoslavia. Deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes undermined Yugoslav communists’ ability to challenge gender norms, causing many disputes and struggles within the Communist Party over the meanings and application of Soviet gender models. Yet, Soviet models informed how Yugoslav communists approached gender-related issues for many years, even after the conflict erupted between these two countries.
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