GROZNY, Chechnya -- Amina Edieva's abductor stalked her like a seasoned predator. He approached the slender, raven-haired 18-year-old student on a Grozny side street, hoisted her off the ground in a tight bear hug and dragged her into a waiting car. The speeding car drove past a military checkpoint manned by Chechens and Russians. The Chechen soldiers would not blink an eye, but she screamed out to the Russian soldiers. No one helped. Nine days later, Ms. Edieva, her makeup smudged by tears, was married in a traditional Chechen ceremony where she stood alone in a corner for hours at the groom's house, forbidden to speak or sit until the elders left.
The speeding car drove past a military checkpoint manned by Chechens and Russians. The Chechen soldiers would not blink an eye, but she screamed out to the Russian soldiers. No one helped.
Nine days later, Ms. Edieva, her makeup smudged by tears, was married in a traditional Chechen ceremony where she stood alone in a corner for hours at the groom's house, forbidden to speak or sit until the elders left.
Unwritten ET issue lurking like a reef just under the water!
Don't restart the "where does Europe begin and end argument"... Please! ;-) ;-)
(FWIW, IMO, since I'm a card carrying member of the "Turkey belongs in the EU camp, then geographically it's hard to say that you can't put Chechnya in the "greater Europe" category.)
You only have to look at the economic situation of women in the UK prior to 1972 to see that the financial control of women's lives was pretty overt. An awful lot of public attitudes to women still rely on historical cultural ideas from a more barbaric era. Jane Austen based an entire novel on such practice.
Look at what has been happening in the Irish republic to see the control of women, the forced incarceration practically for life if they were considered immoral, ie caught having sex before marriage.
These weren't practices that were marginal but accepted, they were legally enforceable.
Honour killings have happened in this historical period in Italy and Spain. Let alone what happens in countries like the Balkan states where family relationships follow much older "traditions".
And look at what happens in the USA. A lot of that is an unreconstructed olde-tyme import from here
So, whilst it's comforting to think that we are in a civilised country and cna look at such things and shudder, it is merely our luck to live in an era where there has been a rapid change of attitudes in the last 60 years. But these behaviours aren't so far from our own culture in time or distance that we can think "not us". Attwood's Gilead is still a shadow we should fear if a future society should collapse into superstition following a post peak oil disintegration of the industrial society. "God's wrath, y'know" keep to the Fen Causeway
