Nikah becomes cover up for early marriages in Northern Caucasus

An author of the study “Forcibly Married” indicated that when she and her colleagues were preparing the study they had to operate only with the information on early marriages released by the “Rosstat” (Federal State Statistics Service), although in many cases, only a religious marriage is being concluded. Crisis centres can help girls who are being forced into marriage against their will, but the effectiveness of the crisis centres will still be low without comprehensive work on education and awareness of people, human rights defenders emphasize.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the problem of early and forced marriages in Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia persists, although there are no reliable statistics on the number of early and forced marriages, note authors of the study “Forcibly Married”, prepared by the “Ad Rem” team.

Sociologist Kulsam Magomadova, one of the study’s authors, notes that the women often live in forced marriages in a state of permanent fear and isolation, being convinced that no one can help them. The women are afraid of persecution from their relatives and husband’s family, which makes them even more reserved and distrustful.

Saida Sirazhudinova, the President of the Centre for Studying Global Issues of Modernity and Regional Problems "Caucasus. World. Development", crisis centres could help the women. “However, while shelters are being broken into and girls are being forcibly returned home, it is difficult to find protection within their own region,” Saida Sirazhudinova emphasized.

Katerina Neroznikova, a coordinator of the “Marem” human rights group, notes that “only some republics have strict records of religious marriages (Chechnya, for example).”

“In Chechnya, newly-married couples are being handed over appropriate documents in mosques ... But many people choose to avoid those obstacles. They go, for example, to Vladikavkaz, and they enter into nikah there. So, we actually don’t know how many girls now fell victim to early marriages,” the human rights defender stated.

Katerina Neroznikova emphasizes that one of the alarming indicators is the decreasing age of motherhood, which means that the age of marriage is decreasing.

According to the human rights defender’s report, the “Marem” human rights group receives a permanently growing number of requests, including for evacuation. “Last month, we got 40 such requests,” Katerina Neroznikova stated.

The human rights defender has pointed out that runaway girls have to leave their region or even the country.