Only eleven hours separate the first video uploaded by the group on Telegram from a detention center on the Russian-Georgian border, where young people express fear for their lives, from the last, recorded in Georgia, full of gratitude for “those who refused to be indifferent.” But it is a whole world of pain and threats that they have managed to leave behind in the meantime.
The Khizrieva sisters and their two cousins told their story, broadcast on The world Tuesday and on BFMTV this Wednesday – in these recordings posted online. In their homes they had been beaten and victims of the worst violence for many years. And it is to escape this abuse that they took the road abroad.
serial locks
The young women come from Dagestan, the Russian republic of the Caucasus, and more precisely from the village of Khadjalmakhi. In addition to their family ties and their solidarity, they therefore have in common having suffered blows from those around them and having been circumcised as girls. Besides, one of them was going to be forced to marry one of his cousins shortly. Therefore, they decided to try their luck and embark on the path of exile.
It must be said that in her country, victims of domestic violence could not count on the protection of justice. Since 2017, in fact, these abuses have been decriminalized, and their perpetrators only risk a fine (the law assumes that these blows are the first and have not shed blood). They first hid for three months before reaching the Russian-Georgian border on October 29.
There, however, the harassment and blockades begin. Customs refuses to let them through at first. They are asked if they have family authorization to go abroad. A request that is all the more absurd since the four young women are of legal age, they have even been biting their nails for several years, hoping that the youngest will become one. So the customs officers want to know if they are not leaving debts. Deposit of a mature project with a long date, then they can show documents that show that it is nothing. Ultimately, they are charged with theft.
pressure blow
After this interrogation, they are taken to a detention center. This is where they throw their first bottle into the sea, or rather on the Telegram digital platform. They speak successively in front of the phone screen. “I am Aminat Gazimagomedova, born in 1998. I am on the border with Georgia and I ask that I not be returned to my relatives who are looking for me to kill me,” says one. “I am Patimat Khizrieva, born in 2004. I ask that you do not hand me over to my parents, they can kill me,” says a second. Similar statements then follow from Khadijat Khizrieva and Patimat Magomedova.
In the second video, recorded by a lawyer assigned to her, we see a man trying to bring dissidents back into the fold. He is a member of his family and is accompanied by the mother of the two sisters who also made the trip. This arrival is not accidental: the border police notified the family in advance. This pressure, however, remains in vain.
Fear of “honor killings”
The so-called human rights NGOs at the same time are working to raise public awareness of the girls’ cause and contribute to their salvation. There is not much to do: in just a few hours, the first video has racked up hundreds of thousands of views. And many individuals then band together to conduct phone raids at the border post where they are being held. That is, they multiply the calls until the lines are saturated.
Now is not the time for optimism. Aminat Gazimagomedova thus confides in a Russian media outlet, according to a translation provided by The world:
“We’ve been beaten up every day. It’s not just empty talk, we have photos and sound recordings to prove it. There’s also no doubt about the honor killing that awaits us. Maybe with the noise our story is making now, it won’t happen.” immediately”
“But they will take us back, they will kill us and no one will know. Patimat and Khadidjat’s father has already told them that he must ‘clean his honor’,” he adds.
A happy ending despite the difficulties
The four women send photos to the associations to support their statements. They are seen covered in bruises, their faces covered in bruises after being beaten by those around them. Finally, after eleven hours of this exhausting break, they were allowed to enter Georgian territory. But it’s the cold shower: because their parents preceded them there. Fortunately, NGOs act as a bulwark and organize their reception.
It is from this haven of peace that they wanted to thank their allies, activists or digital.
Source: BFM TV
