TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Gathered in a concert hall recently in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, a group of eight women and one man rehearsed a musical retelling an ancient epic tale called “Forty Girls.”

The story dates back more than 2,000 years but has a strikingly contemporary theme: how a band of female warriors in the deserts of Central Asia had — long before #metoo became a rallying cry in the West — resisted aggression by the men who wanted to conquer them. The women all die in the end but nonetheless avoid submission.

The new telling of “Forty Girls,” which mixes video, songs and traditional and modern music, marks a bold departure for a Muslim country. That is particularly so in Uzbekistan, as it struggles to shake off a legacy of brutal repression left by its former president, Islam Karimov, who ruled the country from independence in 1991 until his death in 2016.