10 December 2019, 12:28
Rights defenders discuss reasons of violence against children in the Caucasus
Resonant cases of female violence against children in Dagestan and Ingushetia are linked with the general obduracy of the society, family reformatting and the practice of sending children to fathers' families after divorce, experts believe.
In 2019, Northern Caucasus saw several high-profile crimes that related in children's deaths or injuries. In July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reported the detention of a Makhachkala woman, whose four-year-old stepdaughter died from beating. In Ingushetia, a seven-year-old girl was hospitalized with severe traumas; doctors had to amputate her arm. The girl lived under guardianship in her aunt's family.
In the opinion of Libkan Bazaeva, Director of the NGO "Women for Development", cases of violence against children in Northern Caucasus are related to the practice of taking children away from mothers in fathers' favour at divorce. Having taken the children, fathers leave them under the supervision of their relatives, who need no alien children, Ms Bazaeva has explained.
The women, who apply violence to children, have often themselves grown up in families, where violence was practiced, said Zemfira Dzalaeva, the head of the "Goryanka" (Highlander Woman) Foundation in North Ossetia.
Bazaeva and Dzalaeva link the increase in child abuse to the events in the Caucasus in recent decades. "Because of the war, now, more cruelty is observed; and a human life is less valued," Ms Bazaeva has stated.
Ms Dzalaeva has noted that earlier the authority and influence of a large family kept people from violence.
The patriarchal society of Northern Caucasus is indulgent towards violence; and the men's role in these situations is decisive, Svetlana Anokhina, a Dagestani human rights defender, believes.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 10, 2019 at 02:54 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Semyon Charny Source: CK correspondent
