A family from Chechnya was forced to leave Russia because of anime

The authorities did not like the pictures, short hair and piercings of the girl

A mother of two children from Grozny had to leave Russia with her children after a conflict with teachers and a spiritual mentor at the school where the girl studied. The reason for leaving was anime pictures that the mullah discovered on the phone of his eldest daughter, then 14-year-old Alina. The pictures showed guys hugging, which outraged the school's confessor. The girl’s short haircut and piercing also caused complaints, notes the SK SOS Crisis Group.

In order not to miss the main materials of “Cold”, subscribe to our Instagram and telegram .

Alina’s mother, Eva Yusupova (the names of the characters have been changed at their request) , told Kholod that she was called to school and reprimanded for the child’s appearance and the contents of the pictures. According to her, her daughter’s style had attracted the mullah’s attention before, but it did not develop into a full-fledged conflict. After the incident, Alina began going to school with a push-button telephone so as not to attract the attention of the school authorities, but the pressure on her only grew.

“My eldest teenage daughter found art at school that depicted anime boys hugging and kissing. These were ordinary anime drawings,” says Yusupova.

Eva says that in Chechnya it is generally not customary to stand out; In the republic, everyone who does not meet local standards of appearance is disparagingly called “informals”: ​​“These are those who dress differently than they would like, those who watch anime, who are believed to be oriented towards Western values. There is such a term, and informals are often pressed.”

Violence against “informals,” according to Alina’s mother, is a standard practice for Chechnya: local “highly moral guys” can beat anyone for their informal appearance, and they will not suffer any punishment, because it was the parents who overlooked it. The majority in the republic shares and approves of such “education” practices.

The conflict reached its apotheosis in January 2023, when the girl began to be bullied on the Internet: someone published her photo in the city public and telegram channels “Carthage” and “Basement of Chechnya” (closed channel) with captions in the spirit of: “Atheist and against the authorities , her appearance is a disgrace to the republic.”

The publication led to a violent reaction from teachers - Eva was again summoned to school for investigations. The meeting was attended by teachers, a mullah, and even an inspector from a psychoneurological dispensary. As a result, the Yusupovs ended up in one of the local police departments, where the juvenile affairs inspectorate took care of them. Authorities took the child and mother to their offices and conducted an interrogation. According to 14-year-old Alina, when she was brought into the room, one of the police officers introduced her to his colleague as his “new wife.”

The police checked the phones of Eva and Alina and threatened to draw up a report on failure to fulfill parental responsibilities. At the same time, the main complaints of the security forces concerned not even public messages or anime art, but Alina’s appearance: short haircut and piercings. The police were also interested in the family’s money and property: they asked about income, inquired about who lived in the apartment and in whose name the property was registered.

“These are standard questions that indicate that we want to spin you for money. And the whole conversation went in such a tone that we ourselves were to blame: both me and the child. No one was going to look for those responsible for the bullying,” says Eva.

After interrogations, the family was told that they were now “on the pencil” and would be monitored. In the evening of the same day, an unknown man called Eva and began to threaten, blackmail, and claimed that he knew about her homosexual relationship with a woman. Eva is indeed in a homosexual relationship, although even her loved ones did not know about it. The man demanded to sell the apartment and pay him 300 thousand rubles for silence. A day later, the local police officer reported that the police were interested in her family, after which Eva decided to take the children and leave Russia.