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Polygamy in present day Chechnya

By Ruslan Isayev, special to Prague Watchdog

Polygamy is beginning to be practised in Chechnya again despite low living standards and lack of basic necessities.

This practice was fashionable during the First War (1994-96), although during Soviet times there were only a few hundred such marriages in the republic. All were done secretly because of strict Soviet penalties against this “savage” tradition.

This practice does not emanate from a national trait, but from religion. When having no other reason to justify another marriage, a man refers to the Koran, which allows him to have up to four wives.

Cheaper brides

The number of polygamous marriages has sharply increased since the beginning of the Second Chechen War in 1999. Even though the principle of exchanging money for a bride has not changed, the financial issue has been greatly simplified - the price is now much less than it once was.

The usual amount paid for a bride in Chechnya was around $500; but since the start of the war it’s dropped to anywhere from $100 to $300. However, there have been some instances where no money was exchanged at all.

Therefore many Chechen men, who were never known for their marital fidelity anyway, rushed to marry for a second, third and fourth time.

Parents of divorced women and girls to whom a marriage proposal is made are unable to do anything more than give their consent even though they realise their new son-in-law may well take a second wife later on.

Yet giving a daughter in marriage under these conditions is a deliberate decision on the part of parents. In these troubled times, when people disappear practically every day, it is extremely difficult to guarantee the security of one’s relatives. Thus, when a woman is given in marriage, responsibility for her is passed from the family to the son-in-law even if she is not the only wife.

Polygamy among the elite

Many Chechen guerrillas have several wives in different villages throughout the country, and in many cases the women are unaware that their husbands have multiple wives. A code of silence is observed primarily for security reasons - if federal forces turn up, the wives will be unable to reveal their husband’s whereabouts.

The recently killed Chechen resistance leader and Ichkerian President Aslan Maskhadov also had a second wife, a girl from the Nozhai-Yurt district, whom he married several years ago. Rumour has it that he had lived in her village for a long time.

Shamil Basayev has three wives, an Abkhazian, a Chechen and an Avarian. Dokka Umarov, another guerrilla leader, has two Chechen wives. But Ruslan Gelayev, killed in Dagestan last year, was the only field commander to have had only one wife.

This polygamy trend is particularly widespread in the Moscow-backed Chechen government. According to a government source, around 75 percent of ministers and high officials have two or three wives. Russian law forbids polygamy, but this is circumvented by officially declaring only one wife and then living in a de facto relationship with the others. For Chechens, the most important thing is to observe religious traditions.

Religion prevails

The wars here have considerably changed the values of patriarchal Chechen society, probably because life itself has changed. Many men are not free to travel in the war-torn republic and so it is often the wives who are the breadwinners in the family.

Since the male population has sharply declined, women are making every effort to marry whomever they can. And young, divorced women in Chechnya frequently become objects of gossip and slander.

There is strong pressure on Chechens from both the Russian secular laws and the aggressive branch of Islam preached in the Caucasus. With an increase in religious followers, one can say that a return to a full-fledged secular society is not likely to take place in Chechnya.

Ruslan Isayev is Prague Watchdog's North Caucasus correspondent.

Translated by Anita Rathjen.

(U/E,T,B)