A group of Ingush residents have carried out a so-called ‘raid’ in the coastal Daghestani city of Izberbash, intending to find Ingush women whom they believed were leading an ‘immoral’ lifestyle.
The raid occurred on the night of 7 August, the podcast Svoboda (ne) za gorami reported, citing participants in the action.
‘Our vigilant brothers stand guard over the dignity and honour of our women’, was how Ingush news pages initially reported the incident.
The reason for the 300-kilometre trip was rumours that Ingush women in Izberbash were allegedly dating men of other ethnicities. The group arrived in the city late in the evening and spent the night checking the beach, cafés, and other public places. Participants in the raid said they found no evidence to support the rumours.
The men did not explain what they would have done with the women if they had been discovered.
‘There is not a single Ingush woman here, they don’t walk around, they don’t sit here. There are only Ingush men who came here with their families. All these rumours are untrue — the reality here is different. Ingush men walk around, check, and if something comes up, they fix it immediately’, one of the participants said in a video.
He added that local Ingush men intended to continue monitoring the behaviour of their female compatriots in the city and to ‘fix’ anything they deemed unacceptable.
Similar actions have been recorded in the past, targeting both women and men.
In July, Chechen authorities began a campaign against beauty salons which, according to Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, ‘corrupt people’. Following his statement, the work of more than 40 cosmetic salons was suspended, officially due to documentation violations. Officials explained this as ‘efforts to protect public health’ and to preserve traditions.
That same month, a Daghestani tourist in North Ossetia was beaten for wearing shorts. The local authorities later forced the man’s attackers to record video apologies.
In June, the Elbrus District Court of Kabarda-Balkaria began hearing a criminal case against ten people accused of creating and participating in an extremist community, as well as making public calls for extremist activity, over what investigators described as a ‘Sharia patrol’. According to the investigation, this patrol monitored the behaviour of local residents for six years, and punished those who, in the group’s view, violated religious norms.
Elizaveta Chukharova
