Chechen women won their war. And were immediately told to hide their faces.
On the eve of the month of Ramadan, while announcing the upcoming fast, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov proclaimed that all women working in state institutions would now be required to wear headscarves. Men were not required to do anything differently, even though according to Islam and traditions, appearing in public with an uncovered head is just as impermissible for them as it is for women. Some women have not taken this new ruling seriously—this is not the first time they have heard this wish expressed. One disobedient woman, a university teacher, appeared for lectures with an uncovered head. They would not let her enter the building and she had to call her husband quickly and ask him to bring her a scarf.
That's how it goes. In Tatarstan, women are fighting for the right to wear a scarf, and in Chechnya those who don't want to wear one are being fought.
It's a strange thing. As soon as the men in Chechnya start talking about independence for themselves, they also immediately demand that women put on scarves. This is how it was in 1991 before the “revolution,” and again between 1997 and 1999. Ultimately this is a bad sign. A year and a half ago, Ramzan Kadyrov, then still prime minister, also announced the benefit of scarves and the harmful influence of cell phones on a young girl's morals. He handed out a thousand dollars each to a few exemplary young women. One of them refused to accept the gift and explained that she wore the scarf not because someone required her to but because she herself liked it.
During the war years, while the men were killing and destroying, women were bearing children, drawing water, and baking bread. Despite all the obstacles, they found work to support their families, supplied their blockaded villages with food and rushed to the rescue when their men were detained during sweeps. Often women also took pity on Russian soldiers, who they felt were just as much victims of the war as they were. After the war, Chechen men realized that the woman's role in society had grown. Now they were taking revenge by demanding a return to tradition in the form of a headscarf.
According to Caucasian traditions, only a close relative—a father, husband, or brother—can order a woman to do or not to do something. But now, it seems that all of Chechnya's men have ceded their right to one Ramzan Kadyrov.
“It’s proper, after all,” a female friend of mine, a deputy minister, says. “Even though I don't like wearing a scarf, it's time to do it. We sin so much, and the Prophet taught us to cover our head.”
I thought, “If only all the other teachings of the Koran were followed so unanimously.”
The month of Ramadan is over. Permission to remove scarves has not followed. The hair of young women television announcers is still tucked under kerchiefs.
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