Veiled and Unveiled in Chechnya and Daghestan (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781849045575)

Offering an unflinching portrait of life in Daghestan and Chechnya and focusing on its girls and women, this book presents the north Caucasus today through the eyes of two Poles, an anthropologist and a journalist, who travelled there amid a locally rooted but newly assertive Islamic revivalism. Shadowed by Russian secret police, the authors participate in Muslim rites in villages which penalize those caught smoking or drinking, even in their own homes; spend time with polygamous families; talk to human rights and democracy activists whose names feature on hit lists; and to young people about religion, polygamy, prostitution and sex. They also track down 'Wahhabis' (known locally as 'devils') who conceal their religious affiliations for fear of persecution. In Daghestan the authors encounter two Sufi religious leaders, both of whom were later murdered, and in Grozny, young men who survived torture but were forced to commit perjury. They hang out with young women 'encouraged' by the Chechen regime to 'conduct themselves morally' for the good of the nation; accompany girls on dates; and find out from eighteen-year-old divorcées why it's better to share a bed with another wife than have no husband at all.

Author: Iwona Kaliszewska, Maciej Falkowski
ISBN-10: 1849045577
ISBN-13: 9781849045575
Publisher: Hurst & Co.
Language: English
Published: 02/15/2016
Pages: 192
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.50w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2016