WUNRN
CHECHNYA-RUSSIA - HIV-NEGATIVE
STATUS NEEDED TO MARRY
01/18/11
GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) -- The
spiritual leaders of Muslim Chechnya have ordered that all couples who plan to
marry prove they are HIV-negative, sparking outrage from activists and
residents who say it violates Russian law.
A decade after
"Any potential bride or
groom is obliged to receive a medical certificate proving they are
HIV-negative," the Chechen mufti's press service said in a statement this
week.
An imam can only approve of a
marriage once the HIV-negative certificate is obtained. "Only an official
representative from the republic's clergymen has that right," the
statement added.
Russia's crippling heroin crisis
means it is facing an explosive HIV/AIDS epidemic -- the United Nations says at
least 1 million people are HIV-positive -- though Chechnya has been little
affected by it.
The order comes after the mufti
and other spiritual heads demanded last year a total shutdown of all eateries
during the holy month of Ramadan and ordered bands of armed men to harass women
who did not wear headscarves.
The mufti's orders have no legal
weight but are generally followed because he is a respected spiritual leader
and because of his ties to
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"This is, of course, not
within Russian law," said Minkail Ezhiev, a human rights worker and
founder of the Chechen Civil Society Forum. "We wish human rights were
taken into account here," he told Reuters in
The Kremlin relies on Kadyrov,
who fought against the Russians in the first war but then switched sides, to
maintain order in the violent region in the
But rights workers and analysts
say Kadyrov's methods to tame the region include a crackdown on opponents and
imposing his radical view of Islam. Kadyrov has dismissed the claims as
attempts to blacken his name.
"I fully support the wish to
protect people but there is too much power falling into certain hands,"
said Zelim, a
Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters.