Escaping my family: the young women challenging tradition in the North Caucasus
The BBC follows young women trying to escape forced early marriages and conservative families, risking violent punishment if captured and returned home.
By Zlata Onufriyeva.
Every year dozens of young women make a risky choice to escape their family homes in the North Caucasus — in the Russian republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.
While the plight of LGBTQ+ community in this part of Russia is well-documented, there is little awareness of the fate of many young women who are trapped in the religiously conservative communities and authoritarian families.
Some have been subjected to FGM, aged as young as six, and are later forced into early marriages, having to leave school. Refusal to be coerced into a lifestyle they didn’t choose, is punished — by physical or psychological violence, restriction of freedom of movement (some are falsely diagnosed with mental health disorders and put away) or worse.
These women have no-one to turn to — the local community and local authorities usually side with their families. The decision to escape not only means cutting ties with everything they know, but also can put their lives at risk.
There have been cases of local police selling CCTV footage to families who are prepared to put every resource at their disposal to track down the women and bring them back.
Once forcibly returned, they are at risk of violent exorcism rituals, forced medication and some are reported to have been killed by their families.
This video has English subtitles.
