Human rights groups allege female genital mutilation has been carried out on tens of thousands of girls in North Caucasus

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Russia has launched an investigation into claims that tens of thousands of girls in remote mountain areas, some as young as three months’ old, have been forced to undergo female genital mutilation.



The general prosecutor’s office has acted following allegations that the life-threatening practice has been taking place “unchecked by the authorities” in the republic of Dagestan, Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported.

Tough prison sentences 'will not end FGM in Dagestan' Read more

The inquiry comes after the human rights organisation Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) released detailed evidence that tens of thousands of girls, including some as young as three months’ old, have been subjected to FGM in remote mountain areas of Dagestan, a restive Russian republic in the North Caucasus region.

The RJI report said the practice had been going on “without any attention whatsoever from the authorities”, and that FGM was seen in some villages as an initiation ceremony and “necessary to curb a woman’s sexuality”.

Russia’s deputy prosecutor Viktoria Grinya, in a letter published by the Russian news agency RIA, had ordered a “rapid response” from the Dagestani government “into potential infringements of the law”.

Although there is no law specifically banning FGM in Russia, the practice is considered illegal under article 111 of the criminal code of causing serious harm to human health. Since the publication of RJI’s report, a bill to specifically criminalise FGM has been drafted.

In August, the Dagestani cleric Ismail Berdiyevdescribed FGM as a Dagestani Muslim tradition that was a solution to the “problem of promiscuity in women in general”.

He was supported by Vsevolod Chaplin, an Orthodox Christian leader, who said on Facebook that traditional practices should be allowed to continue without interference.

Both men have since retracted some of their statements. Chaplin said: “I admit that what I have learned over the past couple of days about this procedure – at least in its extreme forms – motivates me to change my attitude.” However, he added that a woman’s primary role was to serve her family, and suggested that lowering the age of consent should be debated because “the sooner she marries the better”.

Dagestan has been the scene of clashes between Russian forces and Islamist insurgents since the 1990s and ethnic tensions run high. It is also an area where local tribal and Muslim codes often hold more weight than Russian law.

The Guardian has seen interviews conducted by Moscow-based journalist Marina Akhmedova, who recently travelled to Dagestan to research FGM in the area. She said female cutting was linked to the lack of rights for women in Dagestan, their low status within the family and limited work opportunities.

She said many of the women she interviewed talked about the threat of honour killings if a girl did not behave according to adats (mountain law).

“I believe parents use circumcision as a way of protection from honour killings. They believe if a woman doesn’t have a clitoris she won’t be interested in sex and won’t have it before marriage. The villages support killings of such girls.”

Many campaign groups said they were not aware of the situation in Dagestan until the report was published. The United Nations Population Fund said Russia was not on the radar of the UN organisations that fight to end FGM.

Equality Now welcomed the research but said further work was needed to get a clearer picture of the prevalence of FGM in Russia. Stop FGM Middle East said it had been made aware of FGM taking place in Dagestan only recently by the filmmaker John Chua, who visited the region to conduct interviews.

Meanwhile, some activists claim the RJI report into FGM was politically motivated as it was released just weeks before the parliamentary elections.

According to the Moscow Times, presidential human rights council member and journalist Maxim Shevchenko called the RJI report “a deeply inappropriate hoax” perpetrated by liberal political forces in order to destabilise Dagestan.

A statement issued by Russia’s health ministry said: “The international medical community concurs that the so-called female circumcision is a mutilating practice and is not anything positive.” Dagestan’s national affairs ministry and the local children’s ombudsman issued similar statements.

