Chechen president furious about European-style wedding dresses and cell phones

The regulation of the war conflict in Chechnya can be considered solved indeed, since Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov started paying too much attention to the looks of his country-fellows, especially women. Kadyrov recently ordered to stop selling European-style wedding dresses in Chechnya because they are too revealing and open and do not meet the national traditions of the republic, as the president believes.

Kadyrov said that a bride has always been a symbol of modesty and if the European style of wedding dresses continues to sell in the country, Chechnya will lose its unique national traditions. “I do not understand how a bride can enter the husband’s home wearing a dress with a huge décolleté and with no headscarf on,” Kadyrov says. Instead of low-necked dresses Mr. Kadyrov would like local wedding stores to sell “national white dresses that look nicer and more decent.”

Chechen costumes are considered most beautiful national outfits in the Caucasus but they will hardly seem to be modern-looking to newlyweds. But the Chechen president is going to invite fashion designers to develop special models that will reflect the mentality and lifestyle.
It is not the first time when Kadyrov turns to Chechen women’s moral values and national traditions. Being the prime-minister of the republic, he urged all women employed at state services to wear headscarves. This initiative was then supported with a decree for all female officials to cover their heads at work.

Kadyrov is also concerned about the leisure tile of his fellow citizens. The president particularly banned gambling, alcoholic drinks and even recommended younger women not to use mobile phones. The recommendation appeared shortly after an obscene video surfaced available for download showing a man looking like Ramzan Kadyrov in raunchy sex scenes.

Ramzan Kadirov’s predecessors, who also banned alcohol and gambling in the country, did not face the popularity of mobile phone communication and file-sharing technologies. However, the political practice in Chechnya during the 1990s shows that such prohibitions could easily proceed to public beatings and even executions ruled by Shariah laws.

When the first military campaign in Chechnya ended, the Chechen warlords split into two groups. Some of them wanted to turn Chechnya into an Islamic state, a caliphate, whereas others were against it. The two feuding groups were conducting fierce fights with each other, but the adversaries of Islamic fundamentalism did not hesitate to publicly beat people for drinking alcohol and conduct other Shariah-style executions.

The modern-day Chechnya seems to be a much more socially progressive country in comparison with its neighbouring state Dagestan. Women in Dagestan’s capital tend to wear hijabs. Local female residents say that a woman dressed in Muslim clothing has much better chances to avoid an unwanted acquaintance with a man.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov approves classes of Islam and Arab language at secondary schools. His critics reproach Kadyrov for his attempts to bring Chechnya back to Shariah laws. The president rejects all of such accusations claiming that Chechnya has its own secular constitution and laws. Kadyrov adds that the national customs of his country do not contain any slightest contradiction with the constitution.