Khabib's fans show selective approach to women in papakhas

Supporters of traditional values from Dagestan have criticized the Russian women who put on papakhas, but prefer to ignore the participants of the #PapakhaChallenge flash mob, which was organized by an American fan of Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after the victory over the American Dustin Porrier on September 7, the Dagestani MMA (mixed martial arts) UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov thanked his fans, separately marking those who came to watch the fight in papakhas (Caucasian wool hats). "Only real men wear papakhas; women don't wear them," he said. In response, women launched a flash mob on the Facebook by posting their photos in papakhas. Later, some of the protesters deleted their posted photos, explaining that "they were attacked by millions of haters."

"This is the culture of the Caucasus; why should you, women, get where you haven't even stood by," wrote the user, Alexei Orlov on the page of journalist Svetlana Anokhina, who joined the flashmob. He also suggested that she "wash dishes and clean the house."

"The Caucasus has its own centuries-old traditions; men wear papakhas, women wear headscarves," Gadji Gadjiev has commented on the flash mob.

It should be noted here that Khabib Nurmagomedov actually contradicts himself, speaking of papakhas as an exclusively male headdress. He himself was repeatedly photographed with his young fan from the United States, wearing a papakha.

This March, the girl organized the flash mobs #PapakhaChallenge and #KhabibTimeChallenge, the essence of which is that the girl puts on a papakha on famous fighters, after which they say: "Khabib time". Women also posed in papakhas, for example, an MMA fighter Yana Kunitskaya and the Thai boxing world champion Joanna Jendzheichik.

Under the last photo, published five weeks ago, where a Khabib's fan in papakha poses with a professional American wrestler, Eva Marie, users put more than 9700 "Likes".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 12, 2019 at 05:30 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.