March 8 celebration shows women's role in Chechen families

Today, some residents of Chechnya have refused to celebrate the International Women's Day for religious reasons. The woman's cult is one of the national traditions in Chechnya, said Saipuddi Nataev, a historian. The eighth of March was perceived in the Caucasus as a state, not family holiday, said Sergey Arutyunov, a researcher of the Caucasus.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Chechnya March 8 is officially celebrated with solemn and entertaining events, while some residents of the republic believe that celebrating March 8 is unacceptable for Muslims.

This year, March 8 is the first day of the Muslim month of Rajab, during the first days of which it is desirable for Muslim believers to observe fasting, Ali, an official of the Muftiate, has reminded.

The modern lifestyle affects women's emancipation in the Caucasus, said Saipuddi Nataev, who is also an ethnographer.

"In the tsarist and Soviet times, it was believed that a woman is powerless in the Caucasus. But in the Caucasus and in Chechnya, women have always been treated with respect; they are hearth keepers ... Chechens always respected the cult of the woman and mother," Mr Nataev has stated.

The emancipation of Caucasian women became a consequence of the policy of the Soviet government, and of the armed conflicts, when the role of women in society and family went up, Sergey Arutyunov, an anthropologist, has added.

"With the loss of the breadwinner, widows had to run households, and this contributed to their emancipation," he has explained.