Analysts discuss difficulties in rehabilitating families of former militants in Caucasus

The women, whose husbands perished in armed conflicts or were arrested on charges of terrorism, suffered severe psychological traumas, the participants in the roundtable have stated after the report of the Conflict Analysis and Prevention Centre (CAPC).

The report is based on 40 interviews with women from Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, as well as on monitoring of several families where widows and children from Syria and Iraq returned.

Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, Director of the CAPC, has noted that tens of thousands of family members of those killed or convicted as militants live in some areas of Northern Caucasus.

According to her story, the interviews show that all women had experienced severe psychological traumas, which also affected their physical health.

Two out of ten women from Chechnya had to fight for having their children with them, not in the families of their husbands' relatives. Also, more than two-thirds of the interviewed women have no work and their own housing.

Mr Sokiryanskaya has complained that the interaction of the state with militants; wives and widows basically boils down to law enforcers' control over them.

"In this, the most favourable situation is in Ingushetia. The women there did not complain about the violation of their rights by law enforcers. The worst situation is in Dagestan: it has to do with the practice of 'prophylactic registration of religious extremists'," Ms Sokiryanskaya has stated.

Moreover, according to her story, in all regions women who had left for the Middle East are treated much worse; they are condemned and are in isolation.

The level of psychological traumas in Northern Caucasus is very high, despite the fact that the armed conflict has decayed, said Natalia Nesterenko, a psychologist. In her opinion, the interview themselves about what happened to these women is of therapeutic value.