Veiled and Unveiled in Chechnya and Daghestan

Fascinating ethnography of women in the Caucasus living through a period of Islamic revivalism

Offering the reader an unflinching portrait of Daghestan and Chechnya-primarily its girls and women-this book presents the Caucasus through the eyes of a Polish woman who travelled there with her small child in the midst of a locally rooted but newly assertive Islamic revivalism. Shadowed by Russian secret police they, and later her husband, participate in Muslim rites in villages which penalise those caught smoking or drinking, even in their own homes; hang out with polygamous families; talk to activists whose stance on human rights or democracy has them on hit lists, and to young people about religion, polygamy, prostitution and sex. They also track down ''Wahhabis'' (known locally as ''devils'') who conceal their religious affiliations for fear of persecution. In Daghestan the authors encounter two Sufi religious leaders, both of whom were later murdered, and in Grozny activists who survived torture by betraying the innocent.They hang out with young women ''encouraged'' by the Chechen regime to ''conduct themselves morally'' for the good of the nation; accompany girls on dates; and find out from 18-year-old divorcees why it''s better to share a bed with another wife than have no husband at all.