WUNRN
CHECHNYA-RUSSIA - ENFORCEMENT OF
ISLAMIC DRESS CODE FOR WOMEN
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the full report - 48 Pages
Human Rights Watch
March 10, 2011
This report documents acts of violence, harassment, and threats against
women in
____________________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/10/russia-chechnya-enforcing-islamic-dress-code
March 10, 2011
(Moscow) -
Chechen authorities are enforcing a compulsory Islamic dress code for women and
condoning violent attacks on women deemed to dress immodestly, Human Rights
Watch said in a report issued today.
Russia's federal government has done almost nothing to respond to these
violations of women's rights in Chechnya.
The 48-page report, "You Dress According to Their
Rules: Enforcement of an Islamic Dress Code for Women in Chechnya,"
documents acts of violence, harassment, and threats against women in Chechnya
to intimidate them into wearing a headscarf or dressing more
"modestly," in long skirts and sleeves to cover their limbs. The
documented attacks by unidentified men believed to be law enforcement officials
took place from June through September 2010 in the center of Grozny, the
Chechen capital.
"These attacks against women are outrageous, and the
alleged involvement of law enforcement officials is of special concern,"
said Tanya Lokshina, Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The Kremlin
should publicly and unambiguously make clear, in particular to the Chechen
authorities, that Chechen women, like all Russians, are free to dress as they
choose."
The Russian government also should ensure that the
attackers are prosecuted, Human Rights Watch said.
The attacks and the dress code policy are parts of a
quasi-official "virtue campaign," which Chechen officials began
several years ago in the republic. The campaign breaches freedom of religion,
freedom of conscience, and the right to personal autonomy and expression,
guaranteed by Russia's constitution and international human rights obligations,
Human Rights Watch said.
As part of this campaign, despite the absence of any
legal basis for doing so, local authorities prohibit women from working in the
public sector if they do not wear headscarves. Education authorities require
female students to wear headscarves in schools and universities.
Gradually, throughout 2009 and 2010, the authorities
broadened their enforcement of this de facto "headscarf rule" to
other public places, including entertainment sites, movie theaters, and even
outdoor areas. These measures are strictly enforced and publicly supported by
the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was appointed directly by the Kremlin.
In numerous media interviews, Kadyrov has said openly that he considers
women inferior to men and that it is women's duty to obey men and
keep themselves covered up so as not to tempt men into violating Islamic morality.
Last summer's attacks signaled a dramatic intensification
in the headscarf campaign. Unknown men, mostly dressed like local law
enforcement officials, shot dozens of women in Grozny with paintball guns for
wearing clothes deemed to be revealing and for failing to cover their hair. The
men also distributed leaflets stating that the paintball shootings were a
preventive measure aimed at making women wear headscarves and threatening that
women who refused would face more "persuasive" measures. All of the
31 women interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report unanimously
interpreted this as a threat to use real weapons instead of paintball guns.
In a televised interview in July 2010, Kadyrov expressed
unambiguous approval of the paintball attacks by professing his readiness to
"give an award to" the men engaged in them and arguing that the
targeted women deserved this treatment.
At the start of Ramadan in mid-August 2010, groups of men
in traditional Islamic dress claiming to represent the republic's Islamic High
Council started publicly shaming women in the center of Grozny for violating
their interpretation of Islamic modesty laws. They handed out brochures with
detailed descriptions of appropriate Islamic dress for women and instructed
them to wear headscarves, skirts that fell well below the knees, and sleeves
well below the elbow.
Aggressive young men joined the purported council envoys,
pulling on women's sleeves, skirts, and hair, touching the bare skin on their
arms, accusing them of dressing like "harlots" and making other
humiliating remarks and gestures. In interviews with Human Rights Watch, over
30 victims and witnesses described a pattern of harassment that continued
throughout Ramadan and that in some cases involved law enforcement authorities
as enforcers of the women's dress code.
"When a public official like Ramzan Kadyrov praises
violence and speaks of women in inferior terms, he is openly encouraging
attacks and humiliation of women," Lokshina said. "This is absolutely
unacceptable, yet Russian authorities seem to make no efforts to rein him
in."
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has directed Chechen
authorities to look into the paintball attacks. But the federal authorities
have taken no further steps to put an end to the enforcement of a compulsory
Islamic dress code and have failed to indicate in any public way that
Kadyrov's justification of violence against women is unacceptable.
Human Rights Watch has criticized the governments of Germany,
France,
and Turkey
for violating religious freedoms by banning religious symbols in schools and
denying Muslim women the right to choose to wear headscarves in schools and
universities. By the same token, women and girls should be free not to wear
religious or traditional dress.
Human Rights Watch called on the Russian government to
condemn publicly the enforcement of a compulsory Islamic dress code on Chechen
women. The Russian government should also ensure access to the region for
international monitors, including the UN Special Rapporteurs on violence
against women and on freedom of religion, and empower Chechen women to enjoy
their right to personal autonomy, Human Rights Watch said.
"The Russian government needs to stop tolerating
Chechnya's unlawful gender policies," Lokshina said