Oppression of North Caucasian Women Now So Severe They’re Calling for Restoration of a Soviet-Era Law against Crimes Linked to ‘Survivals of Local Traditions’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 3 – Crimes against North Caucasian women have become so frequent in recent years that they have launched a petition drive to restore a Soviet-era law, one dropped by the Russian Federation government, that punished certain actions linked to “survivals of local traditions” as crimes subject to punishment by the state.

            Activists among the women are circulating a petition (change.org/p/возвращение-в-ук-рф-статей-о-преступлениях-составляющих-пережитки-местных-обычаев) calling for the restoration of an updated version of the Soviet-era law because they are convinced that the lack of such a law has led to significantly more abuse of North Caucasian women in recent years.

            According to Anna Tularina, one of the drafters of the petition, “women of the North Caucasus are being subjected to the most varied kinds of violation of their human rights, discrimination and force” (change.org/p/возвращение-в-ук-рф-статей-о-преступлениях-составляющих-пережитки-местных-обычаев).

            Among the actions the Soviet law banned but that Russian law doesn’t categorize as specific crimes bride stealing, forced underage marriages, kidnaping of children by former husbands, female genital mutilation, forced conversation therapies, honor killings, and restrictions on travel without approval of husbands or fathers.

            Moscow officials argue that other parts of the criminal code address these issues, but the reality is that this opens the way to what Daptar commentator Markha Akhmadova says is “misogyny and nationalism under the sauce of tradition” with officials justifying what are real crimes as national traditions (daptar.ru/2024/10/02/prestupnye-perezhitki-kavkazskikh-obychaev-aktivistka-trebuet-vernut-v-ugolovnyi-kodeks-stati-o-pravakh-zhenshchin/).

            And because local officials do not view them as crimes and because Russian law doesn’t identify them as such, the number of such violations of the human rights and even lives of women in the North Caucasus has skyrocketed since Soviet times. Any declines that have been reported are the result of crimes not reported or misclassified not real improvements.

            Sadly, since this petition was launched in August, it as garnered only just over 300 signatures (of the 500 it seeks before presenting it to Russian lawmakers). And if it does not gain more, then only one thing is certain: crimes presented as manifestations of national traditions will continue to go up because most of the time they will remain unpunished.