Chechnya runs campaign to 'reunite divorcees'
The campaign led by Kadyrov claims to have reunited 948 couples within six weeks. Photo: Sputniknews
(Web Desk) - Chechnya’s dictatorial leader Ramzan Kadyrov is leading a campaign to reunite divorced couples.
A commissioned officer appointed by Kadyrov claims to have reunited 948 couples within six weeks of the campaign, involving Muslim clerics who preach Sharia law, while supporting the conservative Islamic ideology in the Russian Caucasus republic, reported BBC.
Calling the initiative "violent", some ex-wives have complained of unfair pressure to reunite with their husbands.
Rasul Uspanov, secretary of the Chechen "Headquarters for harmonising marital and family relations", said there were cases in which the children were living with their fathers who had remarried. “Men under such circumstances understand that it’s better for the birth mother to live with her children, instead of watching from the sidelines and suffering", he said.
Referring to one of the cases intervened by the commission, he said that a man got his first wife back, and now lives with two wives, adding that: “because under Islam a man can have four wives.” He further said a man could have two or more wives if that benefitted the children.
Bariyat, a woman divorced for 12 years has said that she’ll refuse if the commission approached her. “It s violence against people. If a couple got divorced, most likely it was a definite decision.”
She further said that sometimes in Chechnya, couples get married on the basis of recommendations, without even knowing each other. “They got married but were incompatible - so why force them into it?” she said.
A Chechen wedding. Photo: AP
One of Kadyrov’s family reunion team, Rustam Abazov, insisted that “there are no forced reunions, because we live in a civilised society”.
Zarema, a resident of Grozny was quoted as saying the pressure came directly from Ramzan Kadyrov. “If you refuse, it means you are going against not only religion and customs, but also against his will. It is clear that, when you are pressed from all sides, you have to agree.”
Announcing the initiative in July, Kadyrov said children from broken homes were more likely to be recruited by extremists. “The clergy, heads of villages and districts, police chiefs must find out why people have got divorced. We must read them [religious] lessons, teach, help, work on this question,” he said.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov (R) and Dmitry Kozak, special representative of the Russian president in the Southern Federal District hold children after an approval by Chechen parliament in Grozny, 02 March 2007. Photo: AFP
Human rights groups accuse Kadyrov’s security forces of severe abuses to their opponents which include kidnapping, torturing, and other assaults.
Earlier this year they were accused of arresting allegedly gay men and torturing them. Chechen officials while denying any such events simply denied the existence of gay people in Chechnya.
Sternly loyal to Vladimir Putin – the Russian President, Kadyrov has crushed dissent in Chechnya, since Russian and local troops quelled a separatist insurgency.
