Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-8c549 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T09:07:09.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chechen women in war and exile: changing gender roles in the context of violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Alice Szczepanikova*
Affiliation:
Centre d'étude de la vie politique (Cevipol), Université libre de Bruxelles, CEVIPOL, 44, av. Jeanne, 11ème étage, B 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium

Extract

The article analyzes Chechen women's everyday experiences of war and violence and outlines their multiple effects on women's roles and identities. Particular attention is paid to how these effects are shaped by generational differences. The study is based on 35 oral history interviews with Chechen women in Austria, Germany, and Poland. The experience of two Russo–Chechen wars reinforced domesticated forms of femininity. It also exposed women to intensified nonmilitary forms of gendered violence. At the same time, some of the traditional roles were transformed, for example, when women became the main breadwinners for their families. Women's heightened realization of their importance in securing the well-being of their families and communities empowered them and created a sense of solidarity and responsibility reaching beyond their households. This has generated a level of insecurity among some sections of Chechen society and the Moscow-backed Chechen administration of Ramzan Kadyrov puts considerable effort in instructing women about their “proper place.” In exile, women's ability to continue fulfilling their gendered responsibilities in a new environment serves as an important coping mechanism. Different generations of women adopt distinct adaptation strategies that relate to their roles during the war as well as to the conditions of their socialization.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

by Christians for the Abolition of Torture Action. 2013. The Multiple Faces of Torture: A Study of the Phenomenon of Torture in Russia. Condé-sur-Noireau: ACAT, in collaboration with The Committee against Torture & The Public Verdict Foundation.Google Scholar
Akhmadov, Ilyas, and Lanskoy, Miriam. 2010. The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 2000. Russian Federation: Continuing Torture and Rape in Chechnya. Amnesty International. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR46/036/2000/en/bsTiFvsztAJ.Google Scholar
Ashwin, Sarah. 2000. “Introduction: Gender, State and Society in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia.” In Gender, State and Society in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, edited by Ashwin, Sarah, 129. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baiev, Khassan, and Nicholas Daniloff, Ruth. 2003. Grief of My Heart: Memoirs of a Chechen Surgeon. New York: Walker & Company.Google Scholar
Baisaev, Usam, and Grushkin, Dmitry. 2003. Zdes’ zhivut lyudi. Chechnya: Khronika nasiliya [People Live Here. Chechnya: A Chronicle of Violence]. Moscow: Human Rights Center “Memorial”. http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/chechen/zjl/index.htm.Google Scholar
BBC. 2006. “Polygamy Proposal for Chechen Men.” BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4610396.stm.Google Scholar
Brežná, Irena. 1997. Die Wölfinnen von Sernowodsk. Reportagen Aus Tschetschenien [The She-Wolves of Sernowodsk: Reports from Chechnya]. Stuttgart: Quell Verlag.Google Scholar
Brežná, Irena. 2003a. Die Sammlerin der Seelen: Unterwegs in meinem Europa. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag.Google Scholar
Brežná, Irena. 2003b. “Dreams of Authenticity: War, TV, and the Chechen Mask.” Open Democracy. http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-journalismwar/article_1442.jsp.Google Scholar
Caprioli, M. 2005. “Primed for Violence: The Role of Gender Inequality in Predicting Internal Conflict.” International Studies Quarterly 49 (2): 161–78. doi:10.1111/j.0020-8833.2005.00340.x.Google Scholar
Carpenter, R. Charli. 2006. Innocent Women and Children: Gender, Norms and the Protection of Civilians. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Civil Rights Defenders. 2014. “Condemn Attack on Madina Magomadova.” Civil Rights Defenders. Accessed October 15. http://www.civilrightsdefenders.org/news/statements/condemn-attack-on-madina-magomadova/.Google Scholar
Cockburn, Cynthia. 1999. “Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence.” World Bank Conference, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Cockburn, Cynthia. 2004. “The Continuum of Violence: A Gender Perspective on War and Peace.” In Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones, edited by Giles, Wenona and Hyndman, Jennifer, 2444. London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Connell, Raewyn. 2005. Masculinities. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Derluguian, Georgi M. 2005. Bourdieus Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-System Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
EASO. 2014. EASO Country of Origin Information Report, Chechnya: Women, Marriage, Divorce and Child Custody. Luxembourg: European Asylum Support Office. http://easo.europa.eu/wp-content/uploads/COI-Report-Chechnya.pdf.Google Scholar
Eichler, Maya. 2012. Militarising Men: Gender, Conscription, and War in Post-Soviet Russia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Eichler, Maya. 2006. “Russia's Post-Communist Transformation: A Gendered Analysis of the Chechen Wars.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 8 (4): 486511.Google Scholar
Eifler, Christine, and Seifert, Ruth. 2009. Gender Dynamics and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. 1998. “All the Men are in the Militias, All the Women are Victims: The Politics of Masculinity and Femininity in Nationalist Wars.” In The Women and War Reader, edited by Ann Lorentzen, Lois and Turpin, Jennifer, 5061. London: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Estemirova, Natalya. 2005. “‘Unikal'nyi’ Prigovor [A ‘Unique’ Sentence].” Kavkazskii Uzel. Accessed August 29. http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/80875/?print=true.Google Scholar
Evangelista, Matthew. 2002. The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union? Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Franz, Barbara. 2003. “Transplanted or Uprooted? Integration Efforts of Bosnian Refugees Based upon Gender, Class and Ethnic Differences in New York City and Vienna.” The European Journal of Women's Studies 10 (2): 135157.Google Scholar
Gall, Carlotta, and De Waal, Thomas. 1998. Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Gammer, Moshe. 2006. The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule. London: Hurst & Company.Google Scholar
Giles, Wenona, and Hyndman, Jennifer. 2004. Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones. London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Emma. 2010. Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hapke, Andrea. 2009. “The Responsibility of ‘Mothers'. Gendered Discourses of Women's Peace Organisations in the North Caucasus/Russia.” In Gender Dynamics and Post-Conflict Reconstruction, edited by Eifler, Christine and Seifert, Ruth, 200218. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH.Google Scholar
Hughes, James. 2008. Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Human Rights Center “Memorial”. 2001. “Peaceful Mass Protests in Chechnya: Spring – Early Summer 2001.” http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/texts/protests.shtml.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2000. Welcome to Hell: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya. London: Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/russia_chechnya4/.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2009. “'What Your Children Do Will Touch upon You’ Punitive House-Burning in Chechnya.” http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/chechnya0709web.pdf.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2011. “'You Dress According to Their Rules,’ Enforcement of an Islamic Dress Code for Women in Chechnya.” http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/chechnya0311webwcover.pdf.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2012. “Human Rights Watch World Report 2012: Events of 2011.” Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/wr2012.pdf?tr=y&auid=10204781&tr=y&auid=10206228.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2014. “World Report 2014: Russia.” http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/russia.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Susie, Jacobson, Ruth, and Marchbank, Jennifer. 2000. States of Conflict. Gender, Violence and Resistance. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Jaimoukha, Amjad M. 2005. The Chechens: A Handbook. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Google Scholar
Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1988. “Bargaining with Patriarchy.” Gender and Society 2: 274290.Google Scholar
Kandiyoti, Deniz. 2008. “The Politics of Gender and the Soviet Paradox: Neither Colonized, nor Modern?Central Asian Survey 26 (4): 601623.Google Scholar
Khatueva, Zura. 2012. “'The Chechen Mentality.'” OpenDemocracy Russia. Accessed July 19. http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/zura-khatueva/%E2%80%98-chechen-mentality%E2%80%99#.UYzV9zTWmzg.gmail.Google Scholar
Kibria, Nazli. 1993. Family Tightrope. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Komitet “Grazhdanskoye sodeystviye.” 2013. Kazhdyy Molchit O Svoyem: Istorii Odnoy Voyny [Everyone is Silent about Their Own: Stories of One War]. Moscow: Komitet “Grazhdanskoye sodeystviye” [Civic Assistance Committee]. http://refugee.ru/material/kazhdyj-molchit-o-svoem-istorii-odnoj-vojny/.Google Scholar
Kvedaravicius, Mantas. 2008. “Dreaming Conspiracies: Experiencing the Law in Post-Soviet Chechnya.” Paper presented at the EASA “Experiencing diversity and mutuality” conference, Ljubljana, August 2629.Google Scholar
Le Huérou, Anne. 2014. “Between War Experience and Ordinary Police Rationales: State Violence against Civilians in Post-War Chechen Republic.” In Chechnya at War and Beyond, edited by Le Huérou, Anne, Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth, 152175. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Huérou, Le, Anne, , Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth. 2014. “Introduction.” In Chechnya at War and Beyond, edited by Le Huérou, Anne, Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth, 116. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lieven, Anatol. 1998. Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Littell, Jonathan. 2009. “Chechnya, Year III.” London Review of Books 31 (22): 310.Google Scholar
Lokshina, Tanya. 2014. “Virtue Campaign for Women in Chechnya under Ramzan Kadyrov: Between War Backlash Effect and Desire for Total Control.” In Chechnya at War and Beyond, edited by Le Huérou, Anne, Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth, 236255. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, Lois Ann, and Turpin, Jennifer. 1998. The Women and War Reader. London: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Lubkemann, Stephen C. 2008. Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Magomedova, Aida. 2012. “In Chechnya, Some Kindergartens Already Teach Basics of Islam.” Caucasian Knot. Accessed November 7. http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/22819/.Google Scholar
Marten, Kimberly. 2012. Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Marx, Johanna. 2012. Frauen in Tschetschenien: Bericht Zum COI-Workshop Vom 17. Februar 2012 in Wien Mit Vorträgen von Uwe Halbach Und Swetlana Gannuschkina. Vienna: Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz/ACCORD: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin & Asylum Research and Documentation. https://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/90_1341385356_accord-bericht-coi-workshop-frauen-in-tschetschenien-2012-07-04.pdf.Google Scholar
Memorial. 2010. “Bulletin of Memorial Human Rights Center: The Situation in the Zone of Conflict in the North Caucasus: An Evaluation by Human Rights Activists.” http://www.memo.ru/2011/03/03/0303111.pdf.Google Scholar
Merlin, Aude. 2012. “The Postwar Period in Chechnya: When Spoilers Jeopardize the Emerging Chechen State (1996–1999).” In War Veterans in Postwar Situations: Chechnya, Serbia, Turkey, Peru, and Còte D'Ivoire, edited by Duclos, Nathalie, 219239. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Molodikova, Irina, and Watt, Alan. 2013. Growing Up in the North Caucasus: Society, Family, Religion and Education. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Murphy, Paul J. 2010. Allah's Angels: Chechen Women in War. Annapolis: Naval Institute.Google Scholar
Nivat, Anne. 2001. Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Nivat, Anne. 2005. “The Black Widows: Chechen Women Join the Fight for Independence – and Allah.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 28: 413419.Google Scholar
Ong, Aihwa. 2003. Buddha is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Pohl, Michaela. 2002. “'It Cannot be that Our Graves Will Be here': The Survival of Chechen and Ingush Deportees in Kazakhstan, 1944–1957.” Journal of Genocide Research 4 (3): 401430.Google Scholar
Politkovskaya, Anna. 2005. “‘Vakhkhabity’ Prityanutye Za Borodu [A Little Far Fetched Wahhabis].” Novaya Gazeta. Accessed October 3. http://2005.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2005/73n/n73n-s16.shtml.Google Scholar
Politkovskaya, Anna, Burry, Alexander, Tulchinsky, Tatiana, and Derluguian, Georgi M. 2003. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Procházková, Petra. 2003. The Aluminium Queen: The Russian-Chechen Conflict through the Eyes of Women. Praha: Lidové noviny.Google Scholar
Raubisko, Ieva. 2011a. “Life in a Negative – Positive Space: Moral Transformations in Post-War Chechnya.” PhD diss., University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Raubisko, Ieva. 2011b. “'A Lot of Blood is Unrevenged Here’ Moral Disintegration in Post-War Chechnya.” In Multiple Moralities and Religions in Post-Soviet Russia, edited by Zigon, Jarrett, 92118. Oxford: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Regamey, Amandine. 2012. “The Weight of Imagination: Rapes and the Legend of Women Snipers in Chechnya.” In Rape in Wartime, edited by Branche, Raphaelle and Virgili, Fabrice, 128139. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Regamey, Amandine. 2014. “Rereading Human Rights Reports: Material Violence in Chechnya, 1999–2001.” In Chechnya at War and Beyond, edited by Le Huérou, Anne, Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth, 201219. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rigi, Jakob. 2007. “The War in Chechnya: The Chaotic Mode of Domination, Violence and Bare Life in the Post-Soviet Context.” Critique of Anthropology 27 (1): 3762.Google Scholar
Ro'i, Yaacov. 2000. Islam in the Soviet Union: From World War II to Gorbachev. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Sakwa, Richard. 2005. Chechnya: From Past to Future. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Seierstad, Åsne. 2008. The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura, and Gentry, Caron E. 2007. Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura, and Sandra, Via. 2010. Gender, War, and Militarism: Feminist Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.Google Scholar
Smith, Sebastian. 2001. Allah's Mountains: The Battle for Chechnya. New York: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Sokirianskaia, Ekaterina. 2009. “Governing Fragmented Societies: State-Building and Political Integration in Chechnya and Ingushetia (1991–2009).” PhD diss., Central European University.Google Scholar
Sokirianskaia, Ekaterina. 2014. “State and Violence in Chechnya (1997–1999).” In Chechnya at War and Beyond, edited by Le Huérou, Anne, Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth, 93117. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Souleimanov, Emil. 2007. An Endless War: The Russian-Chechen Conflict in Perspective. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Speckhard, Anne, and Ahkmedova, Khapta. 2006. “The Making of a Martyr: Chechen Suicide Terrorism.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 29 (5): 429492.Google Scholar
Swirszcz, Joanna. 2009. “The Role of Islam in Chechen National Identity.” Nationalities Papers 37 (1): 5988.Google Scholar
Szczepanikova, Alice. 2012. “Becoming More Conservative? Contrasting Gender Practices of Two Generations of Chechen Women in Europe.” European Journal of Women's Studies 19 (4): 475489.Google Scholar
Szczepanikova, Alice. 2014. “Chechen Refugees in Europe: How Three Generations of Women Settle in Exile.” In Chechnya at War and Beyond, edited by Le Huérou, Anne, Merlin, Aude, Regamey, Amandine, and Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth, 256273. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Terloeva, Milana. 2006. Danser Sur Les Ruines: Une Jeunesse Tchétchène. Paris: Hachette Littératures.Google Scholar
Tishkov, Valery. 1998. Interethnic Relations and Conflicts in the Post-Soviet States. Annual Report. Chechnya in the Mirror of Political Interests. Moscow: Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Tishkov, Valery. 2004. Chechnya: Life in a War-torn Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
UN. 2010. The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics. New York: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW_full%20report_color.pdf.Google Scholar
Žarkov, Dubravka, and Mulders, Margot. 2005. Working Through the War: Trajectories of Non-Governmental and Governmental Organizations Engaged in Psycho-Social Assistance to Victims of War and Family Violence in the Ex-Yugoslav States. Utrecht: Admira Foundation.Google Scholar
Zherebtsova, Polina. 2011. Dnevnik Zherebtsovoi Poliny [Polina Zherebtsova's Diary]. Moscow: Detektivpress.Google Scholar