Bride kidnapping in the North Caucasus: what you need to know about tradition. How is a bride kidnapped in the Caucasus? Wedding traditions

Moreover, not all of them agree to marriage. Even the prohibitions of the clergy do not stop young men. For many modern horsemen to steal a girl means to prove their valor. Young people are filming abductions with their mobile phones and proudly showing the video to their peers. The police are sounding the alarm: recently, brides have been abducted not only in the Caucasus, but throughout the country. After all, the article of the Criminal Code, which punished kidnappers of girls, was canceled.

After the Muslim holiday of Uraza-Bairam, Dagestan's internal affairs bodies began to receive applications from the relatives of the abducted girls one after another. In Makhachkala, officers of the Kirovskiy ROVD detained a 30-year-old resident of the village of Utamysh, who kidnapped a 20-year-old first-year student of the Dagestan State University "for the purpose of marriage". In the village of Bryansk, Kizlyar district, three men with the same intentions were taken away in a Zhiguli

22-year-old grocery store employee. And in the Kizilyurt district, a 22-year-old resident of the village of Kirovaul kidnapped an 18-year-old girl from the village of Nechaevka.

Or to the registry office, or to court

The government of the republic is concerned: there is a real epidemic of bride kidnapping in Dagestan. For eight years, about 700 girls have been kidnapped in the region. And in 99% of cases - for the purpose of marriage. In eight months of 2007, the republic's prosecutor's office has already received 55 reports of women being abducted for the purpose of marriage. But only in 17 cases criminal cases were initiated on the basis of statements. Otherwise, it all ended ... with a wedding. “As a rule, the relatives of the abducted woman themselves took away the statements,” the senior assistant to the republic's prosecutor Hamlet Dzhamaldinov told NI. "Only three criminal cases have come to trial." According to the State Secretary of Dagestan Takibat Makhmudova, “in our republic, bride kidnapping is treated with a smile, but in general in Russia the attitude to this is completely different - in the eyes of our neighbors we look very unattractive”.

The official is mistaken: the neighbors are familiar with this tradition firsthand. In Chechnya, girls are kidnapped every autumn - it is at this time of the year that the bride hunting season opens. This is not considered a crime here either. They resort to the help of the police only if the matchmakers are indecently late. “This year, there were three cases when the relatives of the abducted girls, as the investigation later found out, with the aim of getting married,” the ROVD of the Leninsky District of Grozny told “NI”. - When it comes to matchmaking, we limit ourselves to a preventive conversation with the groom. But usually relatives agree among themselves. There is no time for litigation here, it is necessary to prepare for the wedding ”.

The Tale of Romeo and Juliet

According to experts, up to 25% of abductions occur with the consent of the bride. Usually these are love stories, similar to the romance of Romeo and Juliet. As reported to "NI" in the State Duma Committee on Women, Family and Children, in most cases the main incentive to steal a bride is banal financial problems. A wedding is an expensive pleasure, and for large families it threatens to ruin at all. Yes, and brides make excessive demands on the groom: to have a car, an apartment, a good job. According to experts' forecasts, it is in connection with the growing social stratification that an increase in the number of abductions can be expected.

Or maybe it's not that bad? After all, the ancient rite helps lovers find their happiness. At least some "victims" are sure of this.

Padam has been married for 30 years. She remembers with a smile how her future husband Adam stole her. “I was terribly frightened then, because to steal a girl in Soviet times was already a feat, they could have been imprisoned for this,” she tells NI. - I remember how my future mother-in-law came up and said: "Stay, daughter, you won't regret it." And I really did not regret a single day that I spent with Adam. We have five sons and a daughter, 12 grandchildren - isn't that happiness? " Since childhood, Zarema dreamed of great love and finally found it. “We met with Dani for more than a year, it was going to the wedding,” Zarema told “NI”. - But my mother did not agree to my marriage, she said that he lives too far from his native village. That's when Dani stole me ... It's already the fifth year that we have been together, and my mother eventually resigned herself. We have two sons, we are waiting for our third child, I hope it will be a girl. "

For only a quarter of girls, kidnapping is a pleasant experience.

Blood "relatives"

And yet there is often more than romance in such abductions. “I met my girlfriend for about two years, we live in the same village, and everything went to the point that we were getting married,” Idris Absalamov, a resident of the Nogai district of Dagestan, told “NI”. - However, a guy from a neighboring village liked her, and he, along with his friends, stole her. There was nothing I could do about it: she had to marry him. " Kidnapped girls are rarely over 20 years old. The youngest brides reluctantly - only 13. Maryam, who asked "NI" not to give her name, tells about her sad experience: “I was 15 years old when I was kidnapped. I was going to school with a friend - and suddenly they dragged me into the car and drove away. Fortunately, my parents soon came and took me away, thanks to my friend, I remembered the number. " To punish the offender, Maryam's parents imposed a large fine by Chechen standards - 250 thousand rubles.

Yet Chechens know stories with a sadder ending. So, for example, a few years ago in the village of Avtury, 11 people were killed both from the groom and the bride because of the theft of a girl. Here is such a blood feud for an insult to honor. Families of the failed bride and groom are still at enmity.

And the other day the car carrying the kidnapped girl was run over by a truck. Five passengers were killed, including the bride and groom. Eyewitnesses say that the "horsemen" were rushing at high speed, clearly fearing the pursuit.

Already unbearable to marry

Today, such stories are increasingly happening and thousands of kilometers from the North Caucasus. So, in July this year, a 16-year-old girl was kidnapped in the Primorsky Territory. She was walking along Vokzalnaya Street in the city of Spassk-Dalny from a store when a minibus pulled up next to her. Three jumped out of it, pounced on the girl, hit her several times, and then dragged her into the car by force and disappeared. According to the preliminary version, the girl was stolen by a potential groom.

In May, a resident of the Stavropol Territory organized the kidnapping of a 14-year-old bride for her son. Together with her friends, she arrived in the village of Urukhskaya, where the girl lived. The men, armed with baseball bats, entered her house, kidnapped the girl and, having put her in a Gazelle, brought her to a tent at the Vladikavkaz bus station. Two days later, the girl's parents found out where their daughter was and tried to rescue the captive. However, the kidnappers beat off the girl with iron rods. After the police intervened, the failed bride returned home. The Georgievsky court sentenced the overly caring mother to six years in prison.

In mid-January, a similar incident took place in Nizhny Novgorod. Several young people put on guard a 19-year-old student of a medical school in the Leninsky district and took her away to an unknown destination. The girl managed to call her parents and say that she was being transported from one apartment to another, so she does not know her exact location. The parents were in a panic: in 2005, their eldest daughter was kidnapped and forced to marry in the same way. They suggested that the organizer of the kidnapping could be a 25-year-old native of Armenia. As the investigation found out, he forced the girl to write a receipt that she voluntarily went with him. After some time, the captive returned home.

In June 2005, a 19-year-old resident of the village of Smirnovo, Pyshminsky District, Sverdlovsk Region, the abductors hid for more than a week in different houses, trying to get her to agree to get married. The mysterious groom turned out to be a 60-year-old man with whom the girl lived for some time. To win the heart of his beloved again, he decided to steal her, and then release her. However, the "rescue" was prevented by the police. The court sentenced the accomplices to 7 years in prison, and the organizer went to a psychiatric clinic for treatment.

Mom don't cry

The Islamic clergy are categorically against this ancient and by European standards, wild custom. “Canonically, bride kidnapping is prohibited,” Shamil Alyautdinov, imam-khatib of the memorial mosque on Poklonnaya Hill, told NI. - From the point of view of Muslim laws, this can be regarded as robbery. The fact that people continue to steal girls anyway comes from a lack of education. "

The elders of the Caucasus agree with this statement. They say that if a young man has stolen a bride, then he is not worthy to be loved by her. The kidnapping of her daughter was considered a terrible insult to her family. The wars that have rocked the Caucasus over the past ten years have virtually destroyed the notion of what can and cannot be done.

Today, for many young men, bride kidnapping is just an excuse to be considered a fearless hero and to raise their authority among their peers. They are now filming their exploits on a mobile phone. One such record came to the disposal of "NI". A selection of several abductions goes to the cheerful oriental music. Here is a girl talking with two young men, then she is about to leave, but she is pushed into the car. An older woman runs next - apparently, mom. Another scene. A crowd of people: some are trying to kidnap the girl, others - to prevent them. Hysterical screams of the "bride" herself are heard. And only the shooting that began makes the kidnappers abandon their plans.

By the law of the mountains

The Soviet Criminal Code provided for appropriate punishment for forcing a woman to marry. Moreover, not only future grooms were punished, but also the closest relatives of the bride who contributed to the abduction. So, until 1995, the parents of the bride, who took money, cattle or other property for the bride, could be imprisoned for up to a year, with the ransom confiscated. The payment of kalym was punishable by public censure, and in the worst case - correctional labor for up to one year. The very kidnapping of the bride was punishable by two years in prison.

In 1996, the new Criminal Code of the Russian Federation canceled the chapter "crimes constituting the remnants of local customs". And at the same time he made the kidnappers feel safe. “Since bride kidnapping usually occurs in groups, the crime falls under Part 2 of Article 126 of the Criminal Code,” attorney Artur Pan explained to NI. - And then the criminal faces up to 15 years in prison. Although different regions have their own specifics. For example, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, the punishment will be severe. And, for example, in Ingushetia a criminal can get off with a suspended sentence ”.

However, there is one legal subtlety. If the kidnapper releases his victim voluntarily and at the same time there is no other corpus delicti in his actions, then he is released from criminal liability.

Unequal fight

In the spring, the People's Assembly of Ingushetia submitted to the State Duma a bill criminalizing the kidnapping of a woman for the purpose of marriage. The amendment to the Criminal Code provided for up to three years in prison for an overly zealous groom. The Supreme Court upheld the initiative of the Ingush parliamentarians, but the government recommended rejecting the bill, citing the refusal by the fact that the proposed amendment "excludes the possibility of encouraging those who have kidnapped a woman to end her captivity."

The local authorities decided to fight bride kidnapping without a signal from the center. For example, the imam of the Ingush village of Psedakh imposed a large fine for bride kidnapping. The innovation turned out to be effective: the thefts stopped. The mullahs and muftis of the Chechen Republic conduct explanatory work with young people, and also impose fines on the kidnappers in the amount of 30 thousand rubles.

MARRIAGE NEGOTIATIONS The tradition of bride kidnapping is rooted in the distant past. It is enough to remember Elena the Beautiful and Paris. Even Herodotus described the ancient custom of the Enochs from Illyria, when maidens of marriageable age with their parents came to a certain place, where men who were ready to marry arrived. The parents received a ransom for the bride. By the way, the custom of ransom among the ancient Britons was called wed, which is where the word wedding comes from. “Historically, bride kidnapping was divided into several types: against the will, with the consent of the bride, with the consent of the bride and parents,” said Lyubov Solovyova, senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D. - Almost the same remains now. Traditionally, the bride is taken to the groom's house and her relatives are invited there. Then together they ask the bride if she agrees to the marriage. If yes, then preparations for the wedding began, no - she was released. In Adygea, one woman said that she had been kidnapped five times. Her father, apparently, was tired of all this, and he said: next time they will steal - I will not go after you. True, for the sixth time she liked her fiancé, and she did get married. “There is one more thing. When the older sister is not married, it is embarrassing to marry the younger one, ”Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the MASHR human rights organization, explained to NI. “To save face for the family, we have to remember traditions” ...

The Council of Ulama has identified a circle of scholars to issue a fatwa on the abduction of girls.

Accordingly, the leadership of the canonical department of the SAMD decided:

1. All imams should inform their jamaats about the greatness of the sin for kidnapping a free girl. Truly, forcing a free woman to go out by force, moving her away from home and relatives, is prohibited by Islam. This is what causes the wrath of Allah. Moreover, it is considered a great sin and the testimony of the one who committed it is not accepted, and it becomes a facet.
2. In case of appeal to the imams of the villages for the reconciliation of both parties, if possible, do not take part in this.
3. If, contrary to the prohibition, abduction occurs, then the issue of concluding such a marriage (mahara) must be resolved with the permission and participation of the district imam.

At the last Council of Ulama, among the many raised issues was the issue of bride kidnapping. The reason for the discussion of this issue was that this phenomenon encourages the relatives, fellow villagers of the kidnapped girl and the kidnapper to enmity, hatred, and an irreconcilable break in relations. Thus, due to the guilt of one person, a confrontation arises between entire tukhums (tribal communities), and even villages. Sometimes this leads to tragedies: the murder of a kidnapped girl, the groom and their parents, brothers. There were cases when the brother or father of the culprit was taken hostage, setting a date for them to return the girl, and then they were killed. This is a shame and disgrace for the relatives of the stolen bride, which the father subsequently no longer accepts into the house, etc.

This issue was raised at the Council of Ulama in order to prevent such phenomena in our life, and this decision was unanimously supported by all the Ulama, of whom there were about a hundred on the Council. They expressed a lot of opinions and suggestions on this matter. Later, the mufti of Dagestan Akhmad-haji Abdulaev instructed to inform all imams and alims, as well as all Muslims of the republic, the decision of the Council of alims on this issue. He recommended that all Islamic media conduct an explanatory work among readers about the prohibition of the abduction of girls and about the great sin of such an act. He expressed the hope that such purposeful work of the alims and journalists of the Islamic media will be beneficial and give an opportunity to come to their senses, to beware of such an act for those who intended to do so. In this regard, I would like to say the following: during Jahiliyah (before the prophecy of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)) there were a lot of traditions, actions, understandings among people who, satisfying some, harmed others, or it was mutual harm. We are talking about such traditions of that time as the burial of a newborn girl alive, as this was considered a shame for the family. A woman was not given any rights: she could be bought, sold, a son after the death of his father could be married to his widow, etc. Allah Almighty, by His mercy, sent the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to prevent such actions, to call people to peace , love and harmony, eradicate ignorance and cultivate a good disposition in people.

The hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: "I was sent to eliminate bad traditions and passions (desires)"... From this hadith it is clear that the purpose of the messengership was to eradicate among the people that which harms them. And only the one who follows the path of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), doing what he called for, and moving away from what he forbade, can call himself a Muslim, that is, obedient, and only in this way can he receive a lot and the pleasure of Allah on the Day of Judgment.

And today such a tradition as bride kidnapping is widespread among people. This custom entails ten or more forbidden acts, some of which are very harmful. And if we consider this problem through Sharia, the norms of Islam, then we can conclude the following:

The first - Islam forbids doing what your brother in faith does not like. The hadith says about this: "The faith of one of you is not refined until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."... Now let's think about which of us wants his daughter, sister, or a girl (bride) to be stolen. Nobody wants this for themselves.

Second - the theft of someone else's property, be it gold, silver or otherwise, is forbidden. And as punishment for the thief, it is established to cut off the hand. So think, is it not more severe punishment deserves the one who steals more valuable than gold and silver, that is, people, in particular women. Will he be saved from the punishment and wrath of Allah? Even if such a person repents of his deed, he will not be forgiven by the Almighty until everyone he has hurt, denigrated, etc., starting from the girl's father and ending with other relatives.

Third - Islam values \u200b\u200band preserves the honor and dignity of a Muslim and strictly prohibits any encroachment on this, no matter who he is by origin. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his farewell sermon said: “Blood (life), property, honor, dignity of each of you are forbidden to you in relation to each other in this city (meaning Mecca), this month (Zul-hijja), how forbidden is this day and how forbidden to make war in this place and this time " (Bukhari, Muslim). Another hadith says: "One of the Muslims is forbidden the blood (life), property and honor of another Muslim" (Muslim, Tirmidhi). Also the hadith says: "A Muslim is one from whose hands and tongue other Muslims are saved."... Now think, does not kidnapping tarnish the honor and dignity of the father, brothers and other relatives of the bride, as well as the honor and dignity of the girl herself. And does the kidnapper protect hands and tongue in this case from encroachment on Muslims?

Fourth - this causes enmity, hatred, anger between Muslims, relatives, fellow villagers, etc. In the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) it is said that distemper (fitnah) is asleep, and the curse of Allah will fall on the one who wakes it up. Think for yourself, don’t we all hear what kind of showdowns, breaks and sometimes murders leads to the theft of girls? These are wounds that cannot be healed even with time.

Fifth - disobedience to parents. The hadith says that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked the Companions: "Do you want me to tell you about the greatest sin among the great sins?" - and repeated this question three times. The Companions said: "Tell me, O Messenger of Allah." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "This is committing shirk in relation to Allah and disobeying parents." (Bukhari, Muslim). Also in the hadith it is said that Allah Almighty postpones punishment for sins until the Day of Judgment, except for the sin of disobeying parents, indeed, Allah Almighty punishes for this in the world without delay ”(Hakim).

Think, by doing this "act", do not children arouse the anger of their parents and do not make them worry, ashamed, humiliated in front of others. After all, if they obeyed them, they would never have done this.

Sixth - wounding the heart of a Muslim, dooming a person to anxiety and worry. The hadith says: "You do not bother a Muslim and do not frighten him, indeed, the fear of a Muslim is a great oppression." (Tabarani). The hadith also says: "The Almighty obliged himself to scare the one who scares the Muslim on the Day of Judgment" (verily, the one who scares the Muslim will be scared by the Almighty on the Day of Judgment).

Seventh - Sharia prohibits asking for the hand (wooing) of the one who has been wooed or wants to woo, until the side of the bride refuses to other matchmakers. How, then, can one steal one who is already married to a brother in faith?

Eighth - According to Islam, it is forbidden for a woman to travel unaccompanied by a mahram, that is, a father, grandfather, brother, uncle, son, nephew or husband. And when she is stolen while negotiations are underway with her parents about an armistice, who is with her, because none of the people allowed for this accompanies her to the house of the kidnapper? And how can you take her away by force when it is forbidden even to touch her? Of course, this is unacceptable and belongs to the number of great sins.

The hadith says: "Whoever believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment, let him not retire with other people's women without her mahram",and "Sticking an awl into the head of one of you is better than touching someone else's woman." (Tabarani).

Ninth - punishment of the Almighty - deprivation of barakat, mercy in such a marriage, deprivation of offspring, or such people will have children who will be hypocritical, with a weak iman, oppressors who do not respect their parents, etc. The hadith says: "The one who marries in order to protect himself from the forbidden or to draw closer and strengthen family relations, then in such a marriage there will be grace." (Tabarani). It is clear from this hadith that the one who steals the bride will certainly break the relationship and instill enmity and hatred. How can barakat exist in such a marriage?

Tenth - such kidnappers set a bad example for others like him, people with a weak iman. Seeing his act, others may also follow his example, forgetting what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who sets a bad example to others, the sins of those people who followed his example before the Day of Judgment are also counted."

In addition to the above, stealing other people's daughters for the purpose of marriage brings only harm and confusion to society. And such traditions and adats are not suitable even for the kafirs, not to mention the Muslims, who know that one day they will have to stand before the Almighty and bear an account for all their deeds. After all, everyone knows that a Muslim must follow the correct path - the path established by the Almighty and brought to us by the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). You need perfect faith or strong law in our time. But when we sometimes look at the people of our time, we note with sadness that there is neither fear of the law nor strong faith in them.

But it is also impossible to exclude the responsibility of the parents in these sins, who prompted them to take these wrong steps, not raising them from childhood in fear of God, but letting them go freely through life in accordance with a time full of turmoil and sins. Imagine a situation when a girl and a boy know each other from kindergarten, school, get used to each other, sit together at the same desk, then fall in love, correspond, call up, meet, etc. Having matured, matchmakers come to the girl's house, she , loving another, refuses to marry the one for whom the parents wanted, and therefore there are thefts, runaways, etc. After all, the first blame for this is the parents themselves, who at one time left their children unattended. Look at our society! What time do we live with you ?! How do people dress, including girls ?! Fashion changes faster than the weather, and in such a bustle of life, parents are obliged to save their child from the vices of society, and then marry their daughter with dignity or marry their son to a decent girl. And if we pay attention to the upbringing of children in time, we will not worry about their actions in the future, blush and be ashamed of them.

May Allah save us, our sons and daughters, from what may tarnish their honor and dignity, may He instill in us and our children strong faith. Amine.

Most often, bride theft occurs for several reasons:

1. In the event that it can solve the financial problem. Stealing the bride completely solves the issue of paying the kalym for the daughter, which is otherwise obligatory.

2. If the girl and her parents are against the given marriage, or the guy's social status is much lower than the status of the bride in society, and he is sure that the family will never agree to marry him off.

3. Perhaps the most pleasant option for all parties is when the decision to kidnap is mutual. Due to some circumstances, which may be different. For example, young people like each other, but their parents do not approve of marriage or have already found more suitable candidates for their children.

But kidnapping is not always perceived the same way. And if for some girls theft is a manifestation of love and serious intentions, for others it is nothing more than a manifestation of savagery.

Bride kidnapping plan

How does the theft of the chosen one take place? In ancient times, the groom would steal a girl and take her away on a horse. In the 21st century, a horse is not necessary, if only an iron one, and the abduction itself can be cranked by friends and relatives. The main thing is to keep everything in the strictest confidence.

Choosing the right moment when the girl is left alone (most often this is the way home from university or work), friends steal the bride and take her to the groom's house (if the parents are aware of this). There she would have to spend the night, maybe not even one. It all depends on how quickly you can get the consent out of her.

The stolen girl is reassured and persuaded to marry the kidnapper, giving all sorts of arguments and talking about the good qualities of the groom (for example, authority, wealth, etc.)

Left in the same house with the kidnapper, in the morning the girl must make a choice: agree to the marriage or refuse. The latter option can lead to family strife. By the way, there are few options here: the girl who was stolen has a tarnished reputation.

In case of receiving a positive answer from the girl, the young ask the approval of the marriage from her father. It is possible that the parents will not immediately agree and will not accept the son-in-law, but after the birth of the first child, he is forgiven and accepted into the family.

If we talk about the opinion of religious leaders, they do not consider theft to be the best method of starting a family: after all, such stories do not always end well.

In the famous film "Prisoner of the Caucasus", the bride kidnappers ended up in the dock. In the modern Caucasus, there is almost never a trial, but the abduction of girls is becoming more common. Several years ago, a fine for kidnappers was introduced in Chechnya - a million rubles. But this does not stop those who want to steal a girl they like and marry her.

The custom of kidnapping the bride is ancient. It has been practiced by many nations. In some cultures, traces of it are still preserved. Now in the Caucasus, this practice exists in three main variants.

If a girl is kidnapped for a joke, while the parents of the young people are aware of what is happening, and they themselves are aware of the playfulness, then this is a tribute to tradition. Sometimes kidnapping is committed by conspiracy between a guy and a girl. In the third case, the girl is indeed abducted against her will, while her relatives may also be opposed to marriage.

Often, the theft of a girl is justified by Muslim traditions, but this is not true - Islam prohibits marriage without the consent of both parties. Moreover, many Muslim leaders insist that the bride's father be present at the wedding ceremony (nikah). Chechen traditional law, adat, also has a negative attitude to abduction. According to its standards, a woman should have the right to choose. However, even mullahs often marry after kidnapping the bride. And there are reasons for this behavior.

Nowhere to go

Caucasian parents love their daughters and are in no hurry to marry the first person who asks for their hand. And often the groom has already been appointed and will not refuse him. Then a man can start tracking down a girl he likes.

When she is left alone, she is forcibly dragged into a car and taken to a place prepared in advance. In many cases, the very fact of the abduction is already a stain on the girl's reputation, even if she was fought off or she was able to escape. But if she was not found overnight, then this is almost a guarantee of marriage. Parents rarely accept their daughter back, although such cases occur.

Sometimes the attempts of relatives to return the girl end in conflicts with the use of weapons. If there are victims, then in this case it is rare to simply close our eyes to the situation.

Girls have the opportunity to say “no” at a religious wedding ceremony, but only a few use it - both because then the family can abandon the “stained” daughter, and because the groom often threatens with murder.

But even if the girl returns home, then few people will want to marry her later - in the eyes of a traditionally minded society, she is already disgraced. Men motivate their refusal by the fact that they do not want to marry a girl who has been touched by someone else.

A girl kidnapped by someone whom she does not want to be husbands and rejected by her relatives, either resigns herself to this situation and consents to marriage, or commits suicide.

To maintain the appearance of legality, the groom sometimes pays compensation for the girl. The family will most likely agree without them. Secret weddings are rare.

By mutual agreement

Sometimes the bride and groom themselves choose kidnapping. For example, if the parents want to marry their daughter to their chosen groom, and the girl already has a lover. In this case, the parental fear that the daughter will be disgraced often plays into the hands of the young, and they receive consent to the wedding.

Kidnapping "by agreement of the parties" is also resolved in the event that the groom or the bride is the youngest in the family, and their older brother or sister is not yet married. In this case, one is supposed to either wait for the wedding of the eldest son or daughter, or arrange a "forced" marriage in order to prevent shame on the whole family.

Sometimes parents are aware of a planned kidnapping. This happens if the family of the bride or groom is experiencing financial difficulties. By tradition, the wedding should be as luxurious as possible, with the participation of all relatives on both sides. But the abduction makes it possible to conduct a modest ceremony, exclusively for the official registration of marriage. The bride is theatrically "stolen" according to all the rules, taken to the house of her future husband, and the next morning her parents go there.

In some cases, the bride and groom find themselves in the situation of Romeo and Juliet: if they come from warring births, then kidnapping is the easiest way to achieve marriage. The conflict then must be resolved by the elders.

The number of reports to the police on the fact of abductions is estimated annually in the North Caucasus in the hundreds. But only a few appear before the court. The rest of the kidnappers become lawful husbands.

In 2013, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that brides were no longer stolen in the republic. He also established a punishment for religious leaders who participated in the abduction - they are threatened with deprivation of the clergy. However, despite the declarative statements of local authorities and religious leaders, the practice of kidnapping girls in the Caucasus is still a long way off.

The ancient custom of bride kidnapping remains fairly widespread in the Caucasus. Such cases are especially common in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. The leaderships of the republics approach this problem in different ways. The approaches of the Ingush and Chechen authorities diverge quite strongly in this regard.

Yevkurov: no special law against bride kidnapping needed

On May 6, 2017, the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, opposed the bill submitted to the State Duma by the republican parliament, which provided for criminal liability for kidnapping for the purpose of marriage. Ingush deputies suggested punishing the abductors with forced labor for up to three years or imprisonment for the same period. The head of the republic explained his position by the fact that criminal liability for kidnapping a person, regardless of whether it is a bride or someone else, is already provided for by Russian law.

Earlier, the Ingush human rights activist Magomed Mutsolgov also criticized such bills. “I am without a doubt against the abduction of brides ... but at the same time I consider it wrong to imprison for abduction of the bride ... I am sure that first of all we need to ensure that no one agrees to participate in resolving this issue,” said Mutsolgov.

Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Abduction of a person" is indeed applicable to cases of bride kidnapping and involves a penalty of imprisonment for a term of four years or more. However, according to the footnote to this article, “a person who voluntarily released the abducted person is exempt from criminal liability, unless his actions contain a different corpus delicti,” which in fact frees the kidnapper from prosecution.

In 2008, Ingushetia had already prepared a bill on amendments to the Criminal Code, which would punish bride kidnapping. It stated that under the current legislation, “the perpetrator in most cases manages to avoid criminal liability” precisely on the basis of the footnote to article 126.

The authors of the bill noted that the law enforcement agencies of the North Caucasus republics cannot bring kidnappers to justice. At the same time, the injured party, not finding protection from the state, often tries to independently compensate for the damage caused by the insult - and this is how the abduction of a woman is regarded by local customs. This poses a threat to the out-of-court settlement of the conflict. The State Duma rejected this bill, and its specialized committee on legislation said that the proposed amendments reduce the likelihood of the voluntary release of the abducted, since the real motives for the abduction are difficult to establish, except in cases where the marriage was actually concluded.

Fighting bride kidnapping in Chechnya

As for Chechnya, in October 2013, the head of the region, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced that the republic had managed to completely eliminate the tradition of bride kidnapping. "In general, the ban on early marriages gave extremely good results. The facts of abducting girls for the purpose of marriage have been completely eliminated. I instructed to eliminate the existing shortcomings, together with the muftiate, within a month," Kadyrov said. However, as reports from Chechnya show, the practice of abductions has not stopped, but only went underground, becoming more hidden.

President Ramzan Kadyrov made a promise to eradicate this "shameful phenomenon" back in the fall of 2010, announcing both a million-ruble fine for the kidnappers and the immediate removal from office of the religious leader who would force the parents of the kidnapped to agree to the marriage of their daughter to the kidnapper.

In 2008, the mufti of the republic, Sultan Mirzaev, spoke out against the abductions. He forbade local imams to deal with conflicts between the families of the kidnapped girl and the kidnapper, claiming that the custom "is contrary to Sharia and Islam." According to Mirzaev, “in 90% of cases, even if a girl subsequently marries her abductor, the family union falls apart after a while, since a happy family cannot start with violence. The Islamic religion requires that everything be entirely on a voluntary basis. "- said the mufti.

The religious leader's words drew mixed reactions. As the Chechen journalist Zarina Zubairaeva noted in an article about bride kidnapping in the republic, the head of the clergy "announced a decision, the implementation of which is almost impossible to control."

Arutyunov: brides steal when there is no money for kalym

In 2006, Sergey Arutyunov, an expert at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expressed the opinion that the main reason for bride kidnapping in the Caucasus is not the prohibition of parents on marriage, but economic difficulties: “The fact is that, according to Caucasian traditions, the groom must pay a large ransom for his future wife. Since the economic situation in the Caucasian region is now not very favorable, most young men do not have the necessary amount. So they decide to kidnap the bride without noise and dust, as a rule, having previously warned her, and sometimes her relatives. "

He also noted that, although there is a custom of bride kidnapping in the Caucasus, "this is, as a rule, a peculiar performance being played, yes, it is a local feature, but there is nothing wrong with that."

Russian Caucasian expert Akhmet Yarlykapov also believes that bride kidnapping is often practiced for economic reasons and there are also agreed cases. “Again, I'm based on my own ethnographic experience and I know that in some areas more than half of the abductions still take place with the consent of the girls, that is, this is really done in order to save money on the wedding. But if you take all over the North Caucasus, then, probably, either half and half, or still the majority without the consent of the girl. "

According to the expert of the International Crisis Group Yekaterina Sokirianskaya, most often "bride kidnapping occurs against her will, sometimes (quite rarely) it can be accompanied by sexual violence." As Sokiryanskaya noted, many girls agree to such a marriage against their will, because after the kidnapping, the girl's reputation will be tarnished - "the one who has already been" touched "by other men may not want to marry.

Notes

1. Yevkurov spoke out against criminal liability for bride kidnapping // Caucasian Knot, 05/07/2017.
2. On the draft federal law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation" // People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia, 20.04.2017.
3. Criminal prosecution for bride kidnapping is unacceptable! // Blogs of the "Caucasian Knot", 04/19/2017.
4. Article 126. Abduction of a person // Criminal Code, No. 63-FZ.
5. In the same place.
6. The State Duma refused the Ingush legislators: there is no corpus delicti in bride kidnapping // NEWSru, 02.04.2008.
7. In the same place.
8. Ramzan Kadyrov's personal blog on Twitter: kadyrov_95, 02.10.2013.
9. Buchleitner J. The truth about bride kidnapping: An insider interview on Chechnya // Women News Network, 14.01.2015; According to the law of the mountains, or Why they continue to steal brides in the Caucasus // AiF, 26.08.2014.
10. Kadyrov promises to eradicate bride kidnapping in Chechnya // Interfax, 17.10.2010.
11. In Chechnya, bride kidnapping will be punished financially and criminally // Caucasian Knot, 05.10.2010.
12. The clergy of Chechnya will not participate in disputes about bride kidnapping // RIA Novosti, 29.04.2008.
13. In the same place.
14. Zubairaeva Z. Premarital "kidnapping" // Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 11.03.2011.
15. Prisoners of the Caucasus // Novye Izvestia, 14.08.2006.
16. Terrorist attacks and interethnic clashes as a sign of the pre-election year // Radio Liberty, 25.01.2011.
17. He said how he cut it // Echo of the Caucasus, 04/17/2016.
18. Expert: polygamy of security officials in Chechnya is in fashion // REGNUM, 05/12/2015.