Relatives of deceased Chechen woman treat her as victim of domestic violence

The woman from Gudermes, whose death attracted public attention in Chechnya after a nightly funeral and a plot shown by the "Grozny" TV Channel, had tried many times to leave her husband because of beatings and complained to her relatives about her mother-in-law.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the woman's mother stated that her daughter was not sick, while the TV report was whitewashing her son-in-law. The local Imam explained the night funeral by hot weather.

Shortly before her death, the woman quarrelled with her husband and his relatives, her mother, Khutmat Dovletmirzaeva, has stated. She suspects that the husbands' relatives failed to help her daughter and called an ambulance too late.

According to the aunt of the deceased, Madina's four-year-old daughter said that the woman was strangled and thrown down the stairs.

Madina got married at 16 and gave birth to three children in the marriage. Quarrels happened often in the family. "The mother-in-law constantly complained to her son about Madina; and therefore he often beat her up. She had to live with him; they had three children; and she could not leave them,” the relative says.

Malika Ayubova, Madina's cousin, has confirmed that she had long complained of domestic violence.

"She said that when her husband was beating her, he became insane, like a beast … She left him several times and always returned – the elders intervened and pressed her, saying that a woman should be married. And for the sake of the children she came back every time; since the children always remained in the husband's family," Malika has explained.

The blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, is sure that they are trying to hide the true cause of the woman's death. He has noted on the Instagram that it is not customary to bury people at night in Chechnya.