Crisis centre employees report helping victims of violence in Caucasus

Shelters for victims of domestic violence in the republics of Northern Caucasus help women who suffered from ill-treatment by their husbands or became pregnant without being married, as well as mothers with children, employees of crisis centres report. In Dagestan, about half of female victims of domestic violence return to their husbands, the human rights defenders report.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Dagestan, the Motherhood and Childhood Protection Centre "Warm House on the Mountain" has been operating since 2017. In 2019, more than 50 women and children, mostly victims of domestic violence, appealed to the centre, reported director Yevgeniya Velichkina.

Employees of crisis centres in Northern Caucasus face women's problems not typical for other regions of Russia. Many women appeal to the "Warm House on the Mountain" for help because of becoming pregnant without being married, Yevgeniya Velichkina says. According to her, such women are being told that they allegedly "dishonour the republic," the "Meduza" reports.

According to psychologist Larisa Alieva, young women are often abandoned by fathers of future children who have changed their minds about taking care of them.

The "Meduza" posted a story of Madina, a resident of Dagestan, who in 2009, when she was 22 years old, was kidnapped and raped by Ruslan, an employee of a law enforcement body. Madina tried to escape, but several months later she got used to her new life. When she gave birth to a baby, Ruslan started beating Madina and their son. When the woman tried to protect the child, the husband stabbed both of them with a knife. Madina divorced and married for the second time, but her second husband suspected her of being unfaithful and kicked her away from the house. The woman appeal to the crisis centre for help and returned to her native village.

In Grozny, a crisis centre has already been working for a year, but now it has been left without funding, explains Libkhan Bazaeva, the director of the Chechen NCO "Women for Development". According to her, among inmates of the shelter there are women who suffered from their husbands or other relatives, as well as the women who were abandoned by their husbands.

In North Ossetia, during the three months of the "Khotæ" (Sisters) project, activists received about 40 appeals, said Agunda Bekoeva, an organizer of the movement. "In most cases, women suffer from assaults and threats from their husbands," the human rights defender says.