Chechnya- hell for the LGBT

Gender equality is being promoted all over the world but one man, Ramzan Kadyrov. The authoritarian leader of the Republic of Chechnya has gone outright in committing atrocities against the LGBTQ in the province. Ali Kamirov spokesperson of Ramzan Kadyrov, said “You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic. If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.”

As the Pride month just got over and the world is fighting against Homophobia. The transgender community in Chechnya is being tortured. They are kept in over a dozen detention centers in Chechnya. And they are being choked by putting their heads into a vat of ice, or they are being electrocuted by connecting their earlobes with batteries and there are a lot of other atrocities.

Men and women were held in the cells who screamed when they are beaten by batons and fists. They are being held up for over a couple of weeks without food and clean drinking water.

They are traced, got hold of, robbed, tortured, and even raped on occasions. They are constantly facing the threat of being hunted down. The irony is, there is a human rights council and it is inactive.

Recently a film, “Welcome to Chechnya” was released. It revolves around a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya.

With unfettered access and a commitment to protecting anonymity. This documentary exposes Chehnya’s underreported atrocities while highlighting a group of people who are confronting brutality head-on. The film follows these LGBTQ+ activists as they work undercover to rescue victims and provide them with safe houses and visa assistance to escape persecution.

The anti-LGBT nature of the Kremlin is brought out wide and clear in this incident. Many of the men caught up in the sweep are married. There is no blueprint for being gay in Chechnya most of the men talk about times when they were convinced that there were no other gay men in their land and the pressure to marry and have children is immense.

A group of Russian activists who work with the L.G.B.T. Network. As anti-gay violence has spread across the country, the Network has tried not only to document the situation but also to provide some limited services to victims.

Staffers set up a hotline for reporting attacks and on two occasions organized what they call “evacuations,” in which they help people threatened by anti-gay violence to move to larger, and theoretically safer, cities in Russia.

When activists heard about the purges in Chechnya, the Network set up an e-mail address and a phone number for Chechens to call. The Moscow operation is run by a small team, including two lesbians, Olga Baranova and Tatiana Vinnichenko. There had also been a lot of journalists killings in Chechnya.

When the world is gradually getting rid of homophobia, Chechnya stands out, the LGBT community is threatened here even today. In this place, homosexuals experience hell, they lack the basic right to live. There it is Chechnya, a hell for homosexuals. 

Update by Soujashh Singha

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