Chechen bloggers criticize Mufti for pressure on girls in niqabs

Wearing a niqab is voluntary, and no one, according to Islam, has the right to impose or prohibit it, Musa Lomaev, a blogger, has noted. The girls, deciding to make use of the authorities' demand to wear masks during the pandemic, have put on niqabs instead of medical masks, the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, has suggested.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the "Grozny" TV Channel had shown a report about the "educational conversation" of the Chechen Mufti with girls who wore niqabs. Some social network commentators have criticized the practice of public reprimanding.

Wearing niqab is a new phenomenon in Chechnya, said Movsar Ibragimov, an ethnographer.

"It was not customary among our people to wear niqabs. And Chechen women began wearing hijabs since the 1990s, when they got in touch with the Arab world. Many began leaving for studying in Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and from there it all began," he has explained.

In his opinion, wearing niqabs is not common in Chechnya.

Tumso Aburakhmanov does not think that wearing a niqab has to do with the coercion to wear female headgear, which is practiced by Chechen authorities.

Niqabs are a consequence of the fact that people are trying to live correctly, says the blogger, Musa Lomaev. Besides, men "begin covering up their women so that their honour is not violated in any way."

"A woman has her own rights in Islam; and she has the right to wear or not to wear a niqab. Even her husband cannot influence this. Wearing or not wearing a niqab should not bother such figures like the Mufti of Chechnya," Mr Lomaev has added.