Dagestani Mufti's wife urges girls to return home

Aina Gamzatova, who is the wife and an adviser to the Mufti of Dagestan, has called on the girls, who had accused their relatives of domestic violence and ran away from home, to return home under her personal responsibility.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, according to human rights defenders, on October 29, Russian border guards refused to let four girls from Dagestan who had escaped from domestic violence, through the "Verkhniy Lars" checkpoint, and kept them until their relatives arrived. Patimat Magomedova, Aminat Gazimagomedova, Khadizhat and Patimat Khizrievas keep asserting that they had been beaten up at home, forbidden to receive education, forced to get married against their will. They asked not to return them to their families. On October 30, they were allowed into Georgia, but they were afraid to leave the checkpoint, as their relatives were waiting for them.

Aina Gamzatova, the Mufti's wife, has noted that she was not indifferent to the girls' fate. "Now, you've made a decision amid the fear and the prospects drawn before you. But it's very unlikely that your life abroad will be joyful and easy. If you have at least some regret about what happened, return to Dagestan," she wrote in her Telegram channel.

"If there is a desire, we'll talk to your relatives; if not, we'll find an opportunity for you to live and study on your own," the Mufti's wife has added.

The girls themselves have thanked the advocates and the media for helping them and publicizing their story.

Let us remind you that Patimat Magomedova, Khadizhat and Patimat Khizrievas and Aminat Gazimagomedova ran away from home and spent three months in a crisis apartment, Svetlana Anokhina, a journalist and human rights defender, told the "Caucasian Knot". She compared the case of the Dagestani young women with the story of the Chechen Khalimat Taramova, who was taken away by force from her shelter in Makhachkala by her relatives.