There are not many examples of gender studies in the field of historical research of Muslim peripheries of the Russian Empire. This article explores the representations of Muslim women in pre‑revolutionary Turkestan. It focuses on the research and practices of colonial ethnography, which supplied the authorities with knowledge about local people. In particular, the article considers and compare “The Turkestan Album”, a state‑sponsored photography project, and French traveler Hugues Krafft’s volume “Through Russian Turkestan»”, with the pictures of Muslim women. The article deals with the issue of social portrait of Muslim women by external observers. Besides, it looks at how the observers assessed the morality of Muslim women, as well as the impact of male addiction with effeminate young boys (bachas) on the segregation of women.