Aishat Baimuradova, a 23-year-old Chechen woman who was murdered in Armenia in October 2025, has been laid to rest in Yerevan months after her killing. Reports have indicated that her family in Chechnya refused to retrieve her body for burial.
Baimuradova was buried at Nubarashen cemetery in Yerevan on Friday, according to NC SOS Crisis Group, a North Caucasian organisation that helps queer people and women flee abuse in the region.
The organisation of the funeral was taken over by Armenia’s Investigative Committee. Previously Armenian authorities told RFE/RL that they have twice appealed to Russia to inform the relatives of Baimuradova to return her to Chechnya, but no one had come forward.
Baimuradova was found dead on 20 October 2025 in an apartment in Yerevan, where she lived after fleeing Chechnya. She had reportedly met a friend who had social media followers with close ties to Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov on the day of her murder.
She had lived in Armenia since 2023, with human rights activists claiming that she fled Chechnya due a conflict with her relatives and fears for her safety. She had reportedly been subjected to violence both by her father and by her husband.
Baimuradova’s partner told Dozhd (‘Rain’) anonymously that he tried to seek recognition as a victim in the case, in order to receive Baimuradova’s body, as according to Armenian law only close relatives can receive a body from the authorities.
NC SOS also said they attempted to contact Baimuradova’s mother but that she refused to retrieve her daughter’s body, saying she wouldn’t be allowed to do so.
Aleksandra Miroshnikova, the press secretary for NC SOS, clarified that the remains of Baimuradova weren’t taken deliberately to demonstrate that her husband and father ‘did not consider her to be a person’. According to her, Chechen tradition dictates respectful funerals and any deviation signifies a desire to ‘punish’ the deceased.
Earlier in February, Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan promised to assist in transferring Baimurodova’s body to human rights activists for burial, and also to facilitate a transparent investigation into her death.
Armenian writer Narine Abgaryan commented on the burial, saying she would remember Aishat as a girl who dreamed of freedom.
‘Someday, I have no doubt, schools, and streets will be named after these girls. Today’s reality is such: a painful death and a grave at the Nubarashenky Cemetery’, she wrote. ‘Remember Aishat, dreaming of freedom’.
Gunef Yedic
