filia.die frauenstiftung

In Chechnya the experiences and consequences of the two wars – that have affected every single family in the country – are taboo. There is no arena for debates and exchanges, neither in public nor in schools and universities. Chechnya is now a Russian sub-Republic, part of a country that has no interest in scrutinising its own human rights violations before, during and after the two wars.
The annexing of Chechnya by Russia was accompanied by an “ethical-moral renewal” proclaimed by President Ramsan Kadyrov. According to his understanding, in 2007 this meant introducing compulsory wearing of headscarves for all girls age six years upwards and for all women working in government agencies. It means the rebirth of marriage by abduction and greater understanding for polygamy. When the oldest son marries, the daughter-in-law moves in to his parent’s house with him and becomes a subject of his mother. All these indications of re-islamisation are to the detriment of women and serve to profile the country’s political and cultural profile against the “victor” Russia.
What kind of identity are young people, especially young women and girls, to develop here? Creating a basis for a more peaceful, less violent and also more women-kindly society is the aim of Taita Junousova and her team from “Thread of life”. They support and back up children learning to cope with their traumatic war experiences and help them to assert their rights in present-day Russian Chechnya. In courses given at various schools, the team discovered that girls did not talk about the unequal treatment and violence that they suffer in the presence of the boys.
In 2008-II filia promoted seminars just for girls at schools in the villages Elistanzhi, Serzhen´ Jurt and Alchazurovo. Altogether 143 schoolgirls aged 10 to 16 took part in these from January to June 2009. The girls were informed about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and acted out scenes of situations in which they felt their rights were being violated. After just a few meetings the girls began to develop creative approaches to solutions self-reliantly. In training sessions on how to resolve conflicts they practiced asserting their rights more strongly in their family – with success. For instance Lina from Grade 7 in Serzhen´ Jurt was able to convince her father that it is important for her professional future as a lawyer to participate in a peace programme run by the NGO “Sintem”. Her father allowed her to travel to the town for three days – a great victory for Lina. Luisa, an 8th grader from Alchazurovo, managed to convince her parents that she needs more time for her homework, so that she now has to help out less in the inn and at home.

Many schoolgirls report that they had learned from the project work how to talk to their parents. They said that mutual understanding and respect had improved in families. Girls were thus becoming actors for a more peaceful coexistence in Chechnya. The foundation stone has been laid for the long-term objective – self-confident assertion of their own (economic) independence, the right to equal treatment, education, a career and free choice of partner. And as was formulated in the application for assistance, girls have the right to be proud of their success.
In Chechnya today some women pay with their lives for these “evident truths”.

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