Bureaucrats and clergy will respond for bride abduction in Chechnya

Along with kidnappers, heads of district administrations, militia bosses and Imams of local mosques will respond for abduction of brides in the Chechen Republic.

On January 11, the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov held an expanded sitting on measures counter the tradition of bride abduction, where he harshly criticized local authorities and clergy.

The reason of his anger was another fact of abduction of a girl by her bridegroom on December 28 in the village of Geldagan, Shali District.

The head of administration of the settlement and the local mullah, who blessed this marriage, were dismissed from their posts, while the groom was detained and is in custody. If the suffered fails to give up the claims, he may be imprisoned.

"The abduction became known to everyone in the district, but neither the local ROVD (District Interior Division) nor the head of the district took any operative actions. In other words, the local authorities just pretended that everything is OK in their district. Such excesses should be regarded as negligence of heads of administrations and ROVD bosses and absence of their control over the situation in their districts," said Kadyrov addressing the audience.

"We profess Islam, the religion that condemns and doesn't recognize a marriage concluded without the consent of the girl. I have repeatedly stated and repeat now that we shall root out once and forever the tradition of bride abduction from the life of our society," said the head of Chechnya.

Mr Kadyrov also stressed that from then on local bureaucrats and clergy would respond for bride abduction. If an incident like the one in Geldagan happens, the head of the republic offered that local bosses should immediately submit self-dismissal applications.

Meanwhile, in the case of abduction, which provoked the condemnation of the head of the republic, the girl herself had given her prior consent to get married. For a long time she was dating with the young man and agreed to leave her house on December 26 in order to join him in marriage. But she failed to do it at the appointed time; and the groom, together with his two friends, came to her, called her out of the house, put into a car and brought to his place.

A serious clash burst out between relatives of the bride and the groom, since the girl's brother is a militiaman and he went to win her sister back from the kidnappers.

Some experts in the republic believe that it would be hardly possible to completely eradicate this tradition. Brides were abducted in Chechnya also during the USSR time, despite criminal prosecution and official bans.

"For a young man to abduct a bride means, first of all, to demonstrate his prowess. That's how it was perceived by our grandfathers and fathers. We must also take into account that in many cases the girl's abduction is made at her request, for example, because her parents are against her marriage to someone she loves. Therefore, I think to condemn all equally and impose a complete ban on this ritual is not reasonable. It is necessary to differentiate among kidnappings committed against the will of the girl and abductions undertaken with her consent," said Salamu D., a resident of Grozny and a former law enforcer.

A certain part of the population, and in the first place the youth, stick to the same opinion. "Abducting a girl has never been something shameful or criminal in the Caucasus. My father abducted my mother, when she was only 17 years old, and they lived and live in harmony all the time. In certain situations I can also do the same, even if then I'll be put in jail," said Aslan I., a senior pupil of one of schools in Grozny.