A native of Ingushetia spoke about her late sister's struggle to see her child

Pyatimat Yevkurova, a seriously ill resident of Ingushetia, spent seven years seeking to see her son, whom her ex-husband had forcibly taken from her. She died without ever seeing her child grow up. Her sister appealed to the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, demanding that those responsible for violating Pyatimat's rights be punished. 

The story of 31-year-old Pyatimat Yevkurova, who died in November 2024 from lung cancer, was told to journalists by her sister, Zalina Yevkurova. She is seeking to hold accountable those who violated her sister's rights to contact with her child. 

In 2011, Pyatimat Yevkurov entered into an Islamic marriage with Girikhan Bogayev. The marriage was officially registered in 2012, and the couple had a son. According to Zalina, after the birth of their child, regular conflicts began, with the husband's parents "actively interfering" in the couple's relationship. After a brutal beating in 2013, Pyatimat and her child moved in with her parents. The father took the boy away from his mother for several days, even while he was breastfeeding. Later, the husband's family announced they wanted to "take the child away forever," according to a December 10 Ostorozhno Media report. 

The couple officially divorced only in the spring of 2017. In August of that year, the court ruled that the child should live with the father, but the mother had the right to participate in his upbringing. According to the court's ruling, Pyatimat Yevkurova was allowed to see her son twice a month, on Saturdays for two hours, but in reality, her ex-husband's family prevented her from seeing the child, according to Zalina Yevkurova. 

Over the seven years following this court ruling, Pyatimat Yevkurova repeatedly requested a meeting with her son, contacting his former relatives through acquaintances, but was met with refusals and threats. According to his sister, not only his relatives, but also local elders and the principal of the school the boy attended actively participated in the conflict on Pyatimat's ex-husband's side. 

According to Zalina Yevkurova, from 2017 until her death, her sister never saw her son. Only once, in 2023, did she see the grown boy in a photograph posted by a neighbor. Relatives and elders "prevented Pyatimat from acting according to the law," visiting her parents' home and threatening her father to "create unbearable conditions for the family if the woman continued to pursue the child" and deprive them of "the opportunity to live in society." 

According to his sister, constant stress and fear drove Pyatimat to extreme exhaustion due to her serious illness. She made her last attempt to see her son a month before his death, on October 1, 2024: she arrived at her son's school, but the principal demanded that Pyatimat leave. Soon after, the boy's grandfather arrived at the school and "started yelling at Pyatimat and demanding that she leave." Afterward, Yevkurova became ill, and her family took her home. She then underwent treatment in Krasnodar and at the Herzen National Medical Research Center of Oncology in Moscow, but "she was already so weak that she wouldn't have been able to withstand the chemotherapy." Pyatimat died on November 1. 

Shortly after her sister's death, Zalina Yevkurova contacted the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee, alleging violations of her sister's parental rights, threats against her, and pressure from her ex-husband. She says she received only formal replies.

"She died without ever seeing her child. I will ensure that those responsible are held accountable. I will ensure that no one else in Ingushetia can use force and fear to take her child away from her mother," Zalina declared. 

In a video message to Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin, published by the "Motherless Caucasus" project on December 9, Zalina Yevkurova asks for "a number of officials and citizens" to be held accountable for illegal actions or inactions. Specifically, she mentions the school principal, who, according to Yevkurova, "hastily submitted her resignation in order to avoid punishment," as well as her nephew's grandfather, the father of Pyatimat's ex-husband.

Zalina Yevkurova notes that her numerous appeals to law enforcement and regulatory authorities were not properly considered, despite the availability of evidence and witness testimony. 

"Our family has faced a complete lack of response, which speaks to systemic injustice (...). My sister's memory deserves protection for her rights and motherhood, at least after the fact," she says in the video. 

The "Motherless Caucasus" project also cites some of Zalina Yevkurova's words about Pyatimat. "My sister died of grief. Constant fear, helplessness, and humiliation destroyed her year after year. She tried to hold on, saying she had to live for the day she would see her son, but her health was deteriorating before our eyes," reads a post on the project's Instagram page*. It also cites Rashid Bogayev's words to his grandson's mother a month before her death: "Disappear and never come back."