An 18-year old Russian woman from the Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus was severely beaten and then forcibly returned to her hometown after she cut ties with her parents and moved into her own apartment in Moscow, human rights organisation Marem said on Thursday.
Aishat Magomedova, who told Marem that she had been subjected to violence from her family from an early age and had been repeatedly told that she had no right to her own opinions or her own life, had moved to Moscow to study, where she was kept under the strict supervision of her aunt, according to the organisation.
After finding the level of control she was subjected to in the Russian capital even more unbearable than that she had dealt with at home in Dagestan, Magomedova decided to move in with a friend, writing her mother a letter cutting all ties and asking her not to look for her.
“Don’t try to contact me, because you won’t get anywhere. I’m not asking you for any financial or psychological support, I don’t need anything from you. All I ask of you is your understanding and acceptance,” Magomedova’s message said.
Relatives tracked her down and repeatedly came to the apartment to demand that she return to her family, Marem said, on one occasion even breaking down the door to the apartment.
On Tuesday, her parents and her aunt returned to the apartment but this time forced Magomedova onto the bed, where her father beat her face, stomach and legs. They then took her passport and dragged her out of the apartment and drove her to her hometown in Dagestan, Kizilyurt, Marem said.
Activists from the organisation managed to establish on Friday that Magomedova was alive and was in Kizilyurt with her relatives, though said that she was reported to be covered in bruises.
Magomedova’s roommate and lawyers sought help from the police in Moscow, but were told that there would be no point in making an official complaint, with the police officer they spoke to telling them: “These are your customs, they are her parents, the girl went on a bender and they just brought her home.”