Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 2 – The widespread
picture of families in the North Caucasus offered by the leaders of the
republics there as strong social units based on mutual respect and the
protection offered by traditional values is false, Mariya Klimova and Yuliya
Surguyeva say on the basis of interviews with a variety of experts on the
region.
The two journalists say that
republic leaders like to talk in general terms about how important women are to
society but point out that “not one of them” ever has talked in any detail
about family violence, rape, honor killings and other customs intended to keep
women in subordinate to their husbands (codaru.com/war-on-reason/kavkaz-family/).
Saida Sirazhudinova, president of
the Center for Research on Global Issues of the Contemporary World and Regional
Problems, says that “we can say that earlier [in the North Caucasus] were
strong families” but only because men were given near total power over women and
no one challenged that power or came to the defense of women who were
mistreated.
Divorce was unheard of and even
today, the region has the lowest number of divorces per capita of any part of
the Russian Federation. But in fact this figure understates the disintegration
of marriages in the North Caucasus as many marriages were never registered with
the state and are thus dissolved without its intervention or even notice.
According to Yevgeniya Velichkina,
who runs a Makhachkala home for women who have been abused or are suffering, women
who don’t have their marriages registered with the state have almost no rights if
their husbands dissolve the union. They often are left without income and
without access to their own children.
Perhaps the most horrific mistreatment
of women in the region involves genital mutilation. Muslim leaders are divided
on this illegal operation, with some saying it violates the principles of Islam
while others favor and promote it.
According to one study, “a minimum of 1240” young women are mutilated in
this way every year.
An additional form of the mistreatment
of women involves the kidnaping of brides. Sometimes this is done in fun with the
full knowledge of all involved, but often it is a real kidnaping – and the
woman involved then has no choice but to marry the man who steals her lest she
dishonor her own family, the journalists say.
Four months ago, the UN Committee for
Ending Discrimination Against Women held the Russian Federation responsible for
discriminating against women and demanded that it take measures to change the
situation. The tasks involved in doing so are enormous, and there is less than
full popular support in the region for the idea.
According to research, 11 percent of
women in Chechnya say that their husbands periodically beat them, 28 percent
admit to being wounded by them, eight percent say they have been raped or
forced to have sex against their will.
The situation is as bad or worse in Daghestan, investigators say.
More generally, Asya Gagiyeva of the
Women’s Initiative Center in Ingushetia says, women are prevented from working
outside the home and thus kept dependent on their husbands’ incomes or alternatively
forced to earn the keep of the household while their husbands do nothing.
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