Chechen woman succeeds in returning a child from her husband's family

Last week, a local woman appealed to the Prosecutor of the Urus-Martan District. According to the woman, her one-year-old daughter, who has been with her since the birth, is kept by family members of the child's father, who refuse to return the girl to the mother. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by an official from the Prosecutor's Office for Chechnya.

According to him, the Urus-Martan District Prosecutor's Office checked and confirmed the information reported by the woman.

"It turned out that the complainant gave birth to her daughter last year, after the divorce with the husband, and the child grew up and was brought up in the mother's family. No official marriage was registered between the child's parents, and no samples were taken after the girl's birth to confirm the paternity. A week ago, with the permission of the mother, child's relatives from the father side took the girl to their house, but later they refused to return the child. On August 12, the child was returned to the mother due to the measures of the prosecutor's response," the official from the Prosecutor's Office reported.

In most cases, after divorce of spouses, Chechen children stay in their fathers' families, but a father of a child has no right to hide it from his ex-wife. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Sultan, Imam of one of the Chechen mosques.

"According to our traditions, in the case of parents' divorce children usually stay with their father. However, from the point of view of our religion this is not quite right. A child can stay with mother until he or she is six years old. Besides, even in case of divorce, the father has no right to forbid the child to see the mother or hide the children from her. These are requirements of our religion. If we consider the problem in terms of the law, then, of course, the law is entirely on the mother's side," said the Imam.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.