Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [22]
Nobody returned, so let us not delude ourselves that the increase in terrorism since the referendum is a coincidence which Basayev is exploiting. It is all far more complicated than that.
Who is she, today’s Chechen woman? The traditional upbringing of a Chechen woman is ascetic in the extreme. Her obligation is to endure everything without complaint. She should not speak of her personal feelings. For her, virtue is concealment, the ability to hide her feelings deep down, not to show them – not only publicly but even at home in front of her closest male relatives. All her turbulent emotions are bottled up. But can that last for ever?
The devotion and love of a Chechen sister for her brothers, and especially of a Chechen mother for her sons, is passionate and absolute. The strength of feeling is volcanic, and most Chechen women believe that with the loss of a brother, a son or a husband their own life comes to an end.
During the first and second years of the war these private volcanoes did not erupt. The Chechen women were waiting in the hope that everything would come right. They said they had faith that their menfolk would fulfil their traditional role. A Chechen boy is brought up to believe that a man’s first duty is to defend woman and home. Unlike a girl, a boy can be spoilt; much can be overlooked by a woman in return for his willingness to die protecting her, if that should be required.
That is not what happened. The war dragged on, until finally all the traditions collapsed under the pressure of the style of war so mercilessly imposed by the federals. Chechen men found themselves having to be defended by the women. It was the women who haggled in bazaars in order to feed their families, and threw themselves under Army vehicles in an attempt to stop them kidnapping their men; while the men mostly stayed out of sight in cellars in order not to be abducted, “swept” or blown to pieces.
This is how Chechen women were propelled into the foreground of the struggle. They were radicalized more quickly than the men hiding behind them, even if the men continue to believe they still have at least some measure of authority. The Chechen woman finally found a way of letting her powerful emotions burst out. The volcano erupted with molten lava whose bounds are only those it sets itself, vigilante justice as the only effective response to unbridled violence. Women rose up to defend their families, inflicting personal retribution on those they themselves pronounced guilty of murder. They chose to die rather than go on living, unable to defend their sons, brothers, or husbands.
I can already hear my opponents protesting, “But Basayev claimed responsibility.”
Of course he did. He will claim responsibility for anything he can. The terrorist mantle of Salman Raduev, who “died” in prison, had to be inherited by somebody. Far more important is not who claims responsibility, but that there are women prepared to carry out the acts for which somebody else subsequently claims responsibility. There is no shortage of women prepared to blow themselves up, and their ranks are growing the longer the Army’s atrocities continue.
But what about the Chechen men? After the suicide bombings in Znamenka and Iliskhan-Yurt on May 12 and 14 many spoke harshly against the women who carried out those attacks. “They have humiliated us,” they said. “They have shown us we are impotent.”
And so they did. They did humiliate the men and show them they were impotent. The reversal of traditional roles was complete. The women had independently dotted the i’s. They would no longer rely on the men, discuss matters with them first, ask their advice. Instead, they would decide things for themselves, very quietly and privately, and the world would see only the result.
That’s the reality, but everybody keeps prattling on about al-Qaeda, that lifebelt for failed politicians.
What is to be done now? We really cannot take seriously the security agencies’ assurances that they are reinforcing checkpoints and sealing the administrative border