Disabled Dagestanis Reject Stereotypes

Centuries ago the ideal Caucasian woman was one who produced lots of children and did lots of work.

In a sparsely populated region where the survival of the population was threatened by constant wars and the general harshness of life in the mountains, historians say it could have been no other way.

Hundreds of years later, however, little has changed in modern day Dagestan where a woman’s lot in life is clear. She is a mother and a wife and anyone falling outside these rigid parameters is viewed with suspicion.

That includes disabled women, regarded by many in Dagestani society, with its emphasis on reproduction as a primary reason for a woman’s existence, with a mixture of indifference and outright hostility.

According to psychologist Elena Mkrtchyan, “women are second-rate beings, and disabled women are doubly defective”.

The attitude of 38-year-old security guard Magomed Amirov is typical.

“I feel truly sorry for these women,” he said. “But I don’t think they have any reason to live. They are only a burden for everyone, including themselves. A man can get by somehow even if he is blind and deaf, but with girls born with physical defects, it would be more humane to treat them like the Spartans, who threw sick or weak children off cliffs.”

Some women also share this radical point of view.

“May Allah forgive me, but I would kill myself,” said 19-year-old saleswoman Aida Mirzakhanova.

“It says in the Koran that the greatest good for women is to be a good wife and mother. Here, even if a woman cannot get pregnant for a long time, this is already a tragedy for the family, and she is seen as a guilty person. The husband even has the right to get a divorce or take a second wife. But no one will marry [a disabled woman], unless he is also [disabled].

“But what about the children? Maybe they will inherit this too? So [disabled women] have no future.”

Historian Sergei Chipashvili explained, “The image of the ideal women was developed in the Caucasus [centuries ago]. A [disabled man] could take some part in public life, take decisions, and take on some leadership functions. But women, as a rule, were not allowed to take part in these matters at all. Within the family, the attitude to a [disabled] daughter could still be humane and warm, but outside the family this woman was considered to be defective material, an unnecessary mouth to feed.”

Data from the Dagestan labour ministry says there are 167,261 disabled people in the country, almost 15,000 of whom have been so since birth. In the capital Makhachkala, however, there are virtually no buildings with ramps for wheelchairs or crossings equipped with special signals allowing people who are visually impaired to cross the road safely.

Despite the difficulties, there are some like Karina Ibragimova who are defying the obstacles and leading fulfilling lives.

At the age of 11, Ibragimova’s legs stopped working as the result of a debilitating disease affecting her nervous system. Doctors gave the depressing diagnosis that a full recovery was impossible.

“The disease hit me suddenly,” she said. “I had to become strong, especially as I always had my mother before me as an example. And my father forbade [anyone from describing me as sick]. This probably helped.

“And I also realised that what I was taught was not quite right. Of course, you need to think about your relatives, your friends, respect the elderly and so on, but above all you need to love yourself with all your might. Then you can survive. I heard people saying behind my back, ‘what a shame, she’s so young and beautiful, and now who will need her?’ But above all I need myself.”

Though she still has trouble walking, 19-year-old Ibragimova - a successful make-up artist - travels abroad to compete at cosmetics competitions. She has twice won the “Golden Rose of Paris” – the only annual competition for make-up artists held in Western Europe - and in 2005 brought home three medals from the all-Europe championship for hairdressing, make-up and body art in Frankfurt.

Madina Kazakova competes in a different field, though she has been equally successful. The 30-year-old, who is visually impaired, is a successful athlete who won the title of judo world champion at the Paralympics in 2002 and 2004.

“Sometimes it seems to me that she does not win so much by her technique, but by her character,” said Kazakova’s trainer Zina Datueva.

“She has a furious desire to win. And not just to triumph over her rival, but over the entire world - to prove something to them.”

Despite her success, Datueva says the attitudes of Dagestani society have rubbed off on Kazakova who is ashamed to compete in the Paralympics and tries to hide her bad eyesight. “Perhaps that is why she refuses to get married, although she has been proposed to,” he said. “It is as if she has cut off this topic for herself.”

Experts say that even with the prejudice and hardships, women like Kazakova are leading more fulfilling lives than their able bodied counterparts, who are bound by society-imposed stereotypes that they must be obedient, modest and subordinate to men.

“If a woman is [disabled], then these rules no longer apply to her,” said ethnologist Jamilya Efendieva.

“She goes outside the category of brides with their strictly regulated behaviour, and receives considerable personal freedom. For example, many Dagestan peoples did not traditionally approve of a woman who performed in public, a musician or singer. This activity was seen as scandalous and improper, but for [disabled women] an exception was made to this rule, and blind female singers, and female musicians with [mobility problems] were common. Unfortunately, history does not recall their names.”

Elena Mkrtchyan agrees that although disabled women must work harder to achieve their successes, when they do so it is worth the effort.

“In Dagestan, where dowries begin to be saved for a girl as soon as she is born, and from the age of five she is prepared for the role of wife, where unmarried status is the same as admitting that one has failed in life, [disabled women] have to re-examine their social role,” she said. “And they direct all their efforts elsewhere. As a rule, the results are brilliant.”

Svetlana Anokhina is an independent journalist in Makhachkala.