"Memorial": religious novelties in Chechnya irritate teachers and students

Today, the innovations in Chechnya related to the requirement of observing external attributes of women's modesty in educational institutions cause irritation of the majority of teachers and students.

This conclusion was made by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which studied the course of realization of the program adopted by President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov with the main priority as preservation, increase and strengthening of moral values of the society.

The novelties also touched on the schools of the Republic. Schoolgirls from ten years old, and in some schools - from seven years, must sit at their lessons in headscarves.

"We have plenty of problems with this innovation. According to the Vainakh mentality, a stranger cannot make remarks to a girl in relation to her clothes or behaviour, only her father, brother or husband can make them. One guy was severely beaten by securities when he stood up for his sister, when a security made a rough remark to her. He was hospitalized, and nobody took any measures against the security," a teacher of the university said.

One of ladies-employees of the university has recollected the time, when "Wahhabites first demanded to put on a headscarf, then a hijab, and then they used manhandling. It's not clear what the war was about all these years, if the Constitution doesn't work and there's no separation of religion and the state."

The new rules refer not only teachers and students, but also visitors, including those of non-Vainakh nationality, human rights activists mark.

Thus, a Russian-speaking lady-employee of the "Memorial" who went to meet a teacher of the university was stopped by the security who demanded that she put on a headscarf. She was told that under the order of the President a woman without a headscarf cannot stay in the territory of the university, whatever her nationality is.