01 December 2020, 21:42
Condemnation of girls in niqabs continues trend of spreading dress code in Chechnya
A TV report about an "educational conversation" between the Mufti of Chechnya and young women wearing niqabs has become another episode of the campaign organized by the authorities, who are seeking from women of the republic to meet the requirements for their appearance.
Chechen Mufti Salakh Mezhiev has demanded from the young women not to confuse the principles of Islam with the traditions of peoples of the Middle East, where women wear niqabs.
"In Chechnya, where the overwhelming majority of residents are Muslims, young women should dress the way Ramzan Kadyrov likes, while wearing a niqab is generally a crime. I'm not a supporter of the wearing of niqabs, but why on earth should they be banned?" Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger living in Europe and criticizing the Chechen authorities, commented on the incident on his Telegram channel.
In their comment, Instagram users continued a discussion about the relevancy of the demand voiced by the Mufti of Chechnya.
"When you meet women wearing niqabs in the street, you feel terrified. I fully support the Chechen Mufti in this matter," in particular, user rusmsv wrote.
Earlier, the Chechen authorities have already shown increased attention to the appearance of women and girls. For example, in 2016, female employees of public institutions reported that their chiefs obliged them to come to the work in hijabs.
In 2014, residents of Grozny said that they witnessed how law enforcers were kidnapping a young woman wearing a hijab. Ramzan Kadyrov then demonstrated his intolerance to non-compliance with the dress code for women actually introduced in Chechnya.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 1, 2020 at 01:23 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
