Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the peoples of Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) have been exposed to new, Western influences that stress individualism at the expense Central Asian traditions of family and communalism. Young men in particular are exposed to new ideas and lifestyles as they travel in large numbers outside their native republics for the first time, even as contemporary Islam exerts itself as a potent force for cultural conservatism (especially for women). As a result, young Central Asians today confront a complex mixture of the old and the new that strains personal relations, especially within the family, between generations, and between spouses. Relying on the authors fieldwork, conducted between 1994 and 2004, Muslim Youth devotes separate chapters to family life, education, dating, and marriage in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Each chapter opens with a vignette that is emblematic of the theme of the chapter, and additional stories and characters are presented throughout each chapter to illustrate further points. Gender issues are not the main focus of the book but they are nonetheless revealed as central to the struggles between tradition and modernity.