Chechen Police Reportedly Paintballing Women With Uncovered Hair

Published November 17, 2014

Police in Chechnya are reportedly firing paintball pellets at women who do not wear headscarves in another apparent attempt by region's iron-fisted strongman to force a version of Islamic law on the volatile Russian province.

Rights activists are voicing their outrage at Chechnya's firebrand leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whose police squadrons have been enforcing rules that in some cases violate Russia's constitution.

"A car carrying men in military uniform slowed down to approach us, one started filming on his mobile phone, and when they sped away we noticed paint all over our clothes," a woman in the Chechen capital Grozny told Reuters.

Witnesses described to Reuters multiple incidents in the past month when men in camouflage — which is worn by many Chechen police and security officers — fired paintballs at women while driving by in cars with tinted windows.

The Russian rights group Memorial said in a statement it believed police were behind the attacks that fired the paint at women's faces and necks, of which local media report there have been a dozen.

This week, fliers from the self-proclaimed paintballers appeared in the city of Gudermes, Reuters reported, warning of "tougher measures" if women did not cover their heads.

"Isn't it nasty for you, while dressed defiantly, with your head uncovered, to hear various obscene 'compliments' and proposals? Think again!" read the flier, according to a posting on a local website.

Click here for more on this story from Reuters.

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