Orientalists urge Muslims to ignore Djikaeva's epatage

The video clips by Malika Djikaeva, a blogger from North Ossetia, can be painfully perceived by Muslims; however, they contain no direct desecration of Islam, the Islamic experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that social network users had criticized Malika Djikaeva, a North-Ossetian blogger, for her frivolous video in a hijab. In the video posted on the Instagram on October 23, a girl in a hijab stands under the shower, dances in a bathtub filled with water, and drinks milk, spilling it on her chest. In June, the Chechen court fined Malika Djikaeva 40,000 roubles after she had posted a video of her shooting from a submachine gun and a pistol in the uniform of a policewoman.

Malika Djikaeva's behaviour is "on the brink of a fault," but it cannot be regarded as blasphemy, Mikhail Roschin, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), believes.

"Of course, it can be regarded as a clear provocation regarding the wearing of the hijab. But it's still a performance, oriented to the audience; and I don't see any elements of blasphemy or abuse of the Islamic symbol, which is the hijab," Mr Roschin told the "Caucasian Knot".

Malika Djikaeva is a scandalous blogger, but Muslims should not treat her video as offensive, said Magomed Magomedov, a political observer of the "Chernovik" (Draft) weekly. "You shouldn't perceive [her] video as an insult to Islam. Djikaeva is a scandalous woman who is posting her videos to attract attention and cause comments, including negative ones," Mr Magomedov told the "Caucasian Knot".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 26, 2019 at 01:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.