In Grozny, girls in streets are taught Islam

Employees of the Centre for Spiritual and Moral Education and Development of Chechnya and activists of the Patriotic Club "Ramzan" have held an action in the Chechen capital under the motto "Woman in Islam", by telling girls and women in the streets of Grozny how they should dress and behave according to norms of Islam. Local residents express ambiguous attitude to the action.

"The action was dated to the sacred month of Ramadan, when every believing Moslem should be especially zealous in observing religious norms and try to do exclusively good," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Muftiyat of Chechnya.

"Some 20-30 years ago it was a shame for a girl, let alone a woman, to appear in the street without a headscarf or in provoking clothes. Today, by coming under noxious influence of the western civilization and certain European standards, our youth quite often behave vulgarly and freely, without understanding that such actions are blamed not only by our religion, but also by traditions and customs of our ancestors," said the source at the Muftiyat.

However, the action failed to find special understanding in some representatives of the weaker sex. "I personally perceive all these activists as professional parasites, who are doing nonsense, instead of going into some socially useful business. They are preoccupied exclusively by the efforts to prove their usefulness and importance to the republic's leaders," Petimat I., a student of the Chechen State University, said on the occasion.

In her opinion, earlier Mullahs and elders had enjoyed indisputable authority in the republic, but in the last 15-20 years they have discredited themselves to such degree that nobody perceives them seriously. "Every person has his/her head on his/her shoulders; and whether follow the norms of Islam or not, is his/her personal decision, for which he/she will later respond before people, not same as he/she, but before Allah," the girl has noted.