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Goodbye My Chechnya - ABC News
Sep 10, 2012 3:46pm
Photojournalist Diana Markosian spent the last year and half
covering Russia's volatile NorthCaucasus region. In 2011, she moved
to Chechnya where she started a personal project entitled"Goodbye
My Chechnya," which documents the lives of young Muslim girls who
witnessed thehorrors of two wars and are now coming of age in a
republic that is rapidly redefining itself as aMuslim state. The
project will be exhibited at the Half King in New York City from
Sept 11- Oct 30.
Seda Makhagieva, 15, wraps a pastel-colored head covering before
leaving her home. Makhagievasays it's her duty as a Muslim to wear
a hijab. Islam is quickly becoming the cornerstone of identityfor
youth in modern-day Chechnya.
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Students at the Chechen State University sit in an auditorium
before a performance. All femalesstudents must follow a strict
Islamic dress code. Females have reported being harassed,
somephysically harmed for not wearing a head covering and long
skirt.
A woman on a date with her boyfriend in the village of
Serzhen-Yurt. Couples on dates must meet inpublic and sit a
distance from one another. All physical contact is forbidden before
marriage.
A Chechen teen, who considers herself a type of punk rock fan
called "Emo," puts on pink lip glossin her room. Chechen youth who
have been influenced by the Western Emo subculture have
becometargets of violence.
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Seda Malakhadzheva, 15, sits beside her friends as they adjust
her hijab. She started wearing thehead-covering a year ago.
Chechen dancers backstage at a concert hall in Grozny. A suicide
bomber in 2009 detonatedexplosives near the concert hall. The
explosion killed five people and left several others injured.
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Gym class at School No 1 in the Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt.
The girls, all dressed in skirts withtheir heads wrapped in
headscarves, say gym clothes violate Muslim dress code.
A teenage boy checks out a group of girls from his black tinted
window in the town of Urus-Martan. Young women are often kidnapped
off the street and married to men they have never met.
Bridekidnapping continues to be an endemic problem.
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Jamila Idalova, 16, on her wedding day. The teen bride was
kidnapped by her boyfriend. Idalova'sfamily eventually approved the
marriage. Bridal kidnappings are outlawed under strongman
RamzanKadyrov.
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Chechen girls after school in front of the Heart of Chechnya
mosque, the largest in Europe. AllChechen girls, despite religion,
must wear a head covering in public schools and
governmentbuildings.
Half of the girls in the ninth grade at School No 1 in the
Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt wear thehijab. The head and neck
covering is a sharp break from Chechen tradition.
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Layusa Ibragimova, 15, has her hair and nails done before her
wedding. Her marriage to 19-year-oldIbragim Isaev was finalized by
her father just weeks before.
A group of Chechen men at a party, standing at the opposite end
of the women. In Chechnya, understrongman Ramzan Kadyrov, gender
segregation is being enforced.
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Elina Aleroyeva, 25, along with her child at their home in
Grozny. Aleroyeva says her husband waskidnapped by federal security
forces on May 9, 2011, accused of being a militant.
Disappearancesused to be a signature abuse in both Chechen wars and
continue to take place.
At sunset in the outskirts of Grozny, Kazbek Mutsaev, 29,
fireshttp://www.fastfoodnation-lefilm.com/uncategorized/increase-your-online-presence-with-these-blogging-tips/
celebratory gun shots as part of an age-old wedding tradition in
Chechnya.
Photo Essay by Diana Markosian
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