2009-03-02 IHT: Chechen leader imposes strict Islamic code

[Rauli]

Me kaikki muistamme, kuinka Vlamir Putin "vapautti" Tshetsenian ja palautti alueen Äiti-Venäjän yhteyteen. Tässä on esimerkki, kuinka "maallistuneet" islamilaiset hallitsevat Tshetseniaa:

The president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at a mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.

"If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed," Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.

The 32-year-old former militia leader is carrying out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya, in an effort to blunt the appeal of hard-line Islamic separatists and shore up his power. In doing so, critics say, he is setting up a dictatorship where Russian laws do not apply.

Some in Russia say Kadyrov's attempt to create an Islamic society violates the Russian Constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women and a separation of church and state. But the Kremlin has given him its staunch backing, seeing him as being crucial to keeping the separatists in check, and that has allowed him to impose his will."Kadyrov willfully tries to increase the influence of local customs over the life of the republic because this makes him the absolute ruler of the republic," said Yulia Latynina, a political analyst in Moscow.

Kadyrov's bluster suggests how confident he is of his position. "No one can tell us not to be Muslims," he said outside the mosque. "If anyone says I cannot be a Muslim, he is my enemy."

Few dare to challenge Kadyrov's rule in this southern Russian region of more than one million people which is only now emerging from the devastation of two wars in the past 15 years. The fighting between Islamic separatists and Russian troops, compounded by atrocities on both sides, claimed tens of thousands of lives and terrorized civilians.

Kadyrov describes women as the property of their husbands and says their main role is to bear children. He encourages men to take more than one wife, even though polygamy is illegal in Russia. Women and girls are now required to wear head scarves in schools, universities and government offices.

Some Chechen women say they support or at least accept Kadyrov's strict new guidelines.

"Head scarves make a woman beautiful," said Zulikhan Nakayeva, a medical student whose long, dark hair flowed out from under her head covering, her big brown eyes accentuated by mascara.

But many chafe under the restrictions.

"How do women live in Chechnya? They live as the men say," said Taisiya, 20, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retribution. She was not wearing a head scarf while shopping in central Grozny, which she said was her way of protesting.

Most women now wear head scarves in public, though the scarves rarely fully cover their hair and in some cases are little more than colorful silk headbands. Women who go out without a head scarf tend to tuck one into their bags just in case.

Many people suspect Kadyrov is branding the seven slayings in November as honor killings to advance his political agenda. He said the women were planning to go abroad to work as prostitutes, but that their relatives learned of it and killed them.

Few Chechens appear to believe that.

"If women are killed according to tradition, then it is done very secretly to prevent too many people from finding out that someone in the family behaved incorrectly," said Natalya Estemirova, a human rights activist in Grozny.

Estemirova said two of the women were married, with two children each. Their husbands held large funerals and buried them in the family plot, which would not have happened if the women had disgraced their families, she said.

Kadyrov's version has also been contradicted by federal prosecutors in Moscow, who have concluded that relatives were not involved. No arrests have been made, and the investigation is continuing. Kadyrov's office refused to comment on the investigators' conclusion.

The Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that some of the women had worked in brothels frequented by Kadyrov's men. Many Chechens say they suspect the women were killed in a police operation. The truth of the killings may never be known, given how much Kadyrov is feared.

Rights activists fear that Kadyrov's approval of honor killings might encourage men to carry them out. Honor killings are considered part of Chechen tradition. No records are kept, but human rights activists estimate that dozens of women are killed every year.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/02/europe/chechen.php

Hienoa logiikkaa, vastustetaan islamisteja ryhtymällä islamisteiksi.

Ei silti, muistan kuinka poika-Kadyrov tuli isänsä salamurhan jälkeen Putinin puheille. Kadyrovilla oli jalassaan Adidaksen verryttelyhousut. Pikkukriminaali, jonka paikka jokaisessa sivistyneessä yhteiskunnassa olisi vankilassa. Kun isukki pääsi hengestään, niin Moskova nosti tämän hengen jättiläisen edesmenneen isänsä tilalle hallitsemaan Tshetseniaa. Tietysti Kadyroville oli avuksi, että hän terrorisoi hallitsemansa roskajoukon avulla aluetta - Moskovan hyväksynnällä.

Kadyrov on todennäköisesti toimittaja Anna Politkovskajan murhan tilaaja.

Huvittaisi tietää, kuinka Johan Bäckman selittäisi tämän.