The pro-Russia head of the Caucasian republic of Chechnya today banned the ancient custom of ‘stealing brides’, which boiled down to abduction of young girls for forcible marriage, saying it was ‘un-Islamic’.
“This is the Russian Federation, laws of which qualify abduction as a crime. We practice Islam, the religion, which unequivocally condemns such practice and does not recognise the marriage without the true consent of the girl.
I declare with full responsibility that we will root out forever the abduction of girls from our society,” Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov declared at his televised meeting with the Chechen elders.
Chechen Mufti Sultan Mirzayev expressed the support for banning “bride stealing”.
“They should be tried under the laws of the Russian Federation. We have decided that none of the Imams will reconcile the involved parties,” Mufti Mirzayev told Rossiya 24 channel.
Under the Russian laws abduction carries a punishment of up to 15 year prison term, and vendetta in accordance with the Caucasian tradition.
Besides Chechnya the custom of ‘stealing brides’ is common in other Caucasian regions also and could not be rooted out even in the Communist rule.
In 1970s a highly popular Soviet comedy ‘The Caucasian Prisoner’ had blasted this custom. Very often the abducted Caucasian girls, to avoid social boycott, claim that they were abducted by their consent and agree for marriage with her kidnapper.