Women Remain Face of Protest in North Caucasus Even Though They’ve Lost Relative Immunity They had Earlier, ‘Daptar’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 6 – In the North Caucasus, women rather than men are the ones who speak out most publicly “against abuses of power by the security forces, abductions or violations o children’s rights,” according to experts and activists with whom the Daptar portal spoke. And this has continued even though they have lost the relative immunity they had earlier.

            The portal, which tracks the abuse of women in that region, says that women showed that most prominently in 2022 when they dominated the ranks of protests against mobilization for Putin’s war (daptar.ru/2026/05/06/mat-sestra-doch-pochemu-na-severnom-kavkaze-imenno-zhenshchiny-stanovyatsya-golosom-borby-za-spravedlivost/).

            But they have long taken the lead, sociologists who study protest in the region say, in part because they have enjoyed relative immunity from prosecution because defending the weak is viewed by many there as the proper role of women. Now, however, the Russian authorities are changing their approach and arresting more women.

            Despite that, the portal’s experts continue, women in the North Caucasus remain the face of protest in the region because they have earlier experiences in challenging officials when they believe their rights and the rights of their family members have been violated – and they are likely to continue to do so in the future.

            According to Daptar, “a woman can speak from a position of suffering and protection—pleading rather than demanding, appealing to justice rather than engaging in open conflict. This mode of expression proves to be socially acceptable and, therefore, viable.”

            One Chechen activist says that “A woman’s public voice is accepted only as long as it aligns with the image of a mother protecting her child, or an individual seeking justice. But the moment her words go beyond that boundary and become direct accusations, attitudes can shift abruptly—and the risks of facing pressure and intimidation escalate."

            Yet “even now,” Daptar’s Nailya Keldeyeva says, women remain “the most willing to assume the risks and remain active. And while earlier this might be attributable to prevailing notions of ‘female immunity,’ today it is increasing a matter of the wealth of accumulated survival experience.”