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Terror at the Beach
The Daily Beast ^ | September 30, 2011 | Anna Nemtsova

Posted on 10/08/2011 7:49:20 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The beach is crowded with men these days. Powerful, muscled Dagestani men, who practice martial arts and wrestle on the littered sand of the Caspian Sea shore in the capital city of Makhachkala. Some sit around, enjoying boiled ears of corn with butter and salt; others play soccer or ride on their buddies’ shoulders in the waves, competing to see who can last longest without collapsing into the water. Rare groups of shy women in long flannel dresses enter the sea holding children by the hand; their long skirts and colorful hijabs immediately soak up salty water, like sponges. Bikinis? There are almost none. The social change here has been fast and radical: just two summers ago, only a smattering of women swam in their long dresses and scarves on Russia’s Caspian Sea beaches. This year, public opinion in the region—the place with the highest level of terrorist attacks in Russia—decided to put an end to the "sinful" display of women’s bodies. The appearance of a rare tourist in a modern swimsuit elicits frowns, and a grumpy comment in the local language. One word is always clear: haram or “forbidden.”

To make life easier for both women who want to swim yet have no bathing robes (nicknamed burkinis), and for men keen on playing on the beach without violating the dictates of Islam, the state opened the first Sharia-compliant beach in Russia this month. Named "Mountain Woman Beach," it’s a gated community, open to women, girls and boys younger than 6 years of age. Visitors can rest in comfortable wooden shelters to escape the heat or swim in the ocean without the burden of burkinis. The beach is proof enough, if any were needed, of the rise of Islam in Russia. It’s also a security measure to protect women from a recent, gruesome spate of bombings at the Caspian shore.

On a clear morning last July, at around 6 a.m., schoolteacher Yelena Abduzhalimova met her colleagues on the central city beach for a round of volleyball. As the ladies changed into their swimsuits, a group of young boys began to warm up for wrestling exercises before their morning classes, right by the volleyball court. Other than the children, the beach was still fairly empty at that hour. Abduzhalimova walked onto the court with her friends and she stepped forward to serve the ball. Instantly, a powerful explosion threw her into the air, flying 10 feet above the ground. She had stepped on a mine hidden in the sand. It was the third explosion on the public beach that season, and one that cost Abduzhalimova her leg above the knee. The bomb was meant as punishment for women wearing swimsuits, she says. Now, she says she wished the Sharia beach had been open back then. “If only the guarded beach for women existed a year ago, I would have my leg now,” Abduzhalimova said, adding it was a lucky chance that she stepped on the mine before a child did.

Not all women are so positive about the Sharia beach. “First, they make deadly threats for wearing a bikini; next they will want us to stop wearing our shorts and jeans, then ban us from going to restaurants and universities,” says Bakanai Huseinova, a manager of a financial company in Dagestan. Huseinova fears that the increasing terror attacks will eventually start to pressure and control all spheres of a woman’s life—social, familial, spiritual. Terror attacks have been escalating not only against bikini-clad women, but against all symbols of secular Dagestani society. Just this year, there have been more than 200 terror attacks on Dagestan’s food stores, cafés, and saunas that sell liquor, as well as on religious centers and law enforcement. The attacks have killed hundreds of social workers, local deputies, police, high-ranking army officers, even imams. In addition, two school principals who spoke out against schoolgirls wearing the hijab were killed this year in Dagestan.

While the Islamist insurgency in Dagestan is trying to intimidate women into following Sharia law, in the neighboring republic of Chechnya, the leadership itself is taking the initiative. Unveiled women are banned from entering state buildings; teen-age girls are obliged to come to school with their hair covered. Last fall, women in sleeveless dresses and short skirts were harassed and shot by paint guns on the streets by the semi-official morality police. Leaflets distributed at Muslims girls’ schools this summer warned, “Behavior is important—Muslim women should not speak loudly or look directly into the eyes of men.” The initiatives are supported at the very top: Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed president Ramzan Kadyrov, pushes the new Islamic dress code, and his wife has a fashion house that creates Islamic dress standards. On state television, shows are devoted to instructing women about the proper look for a pure Muslim, and feature models in floor-length gowns with veiled faces.

It was the third explosion on the public beach that season, and one that cost Yelena Abduzhalimova her leg above the knee.

Other women feel pressure to adopt Islamic dress code from within their own families. On a recent afternoon, two women fully veiled in black—"Aisha," 22, and her sister-in-law, "Fatima," 24—sat on the worn carpet in the corner of their poor house in the Derbent region. The girls, former students from Moscow and Volgograd universities, preferred to keep their real Russian names anonymous. A few years ago, the two girls fell in love with Salafi Muslim men on the Internet and moved to Dagestan to start families with their religious husbands. “My husband wanted me to cover myself,” says Aisha. Only her eyes can be seen above her black veil. “I try not to walk outside any more. People point at me, call me a terrorist.” Fatima and Aisha have little choice but to obey their husbands. They know too well that men have full public approval to decide appropriate behavior for their wives. Two years ago, Moscow human rights groups tried, and failed, to get an official explanation for the deaths of seven women shot on a road in Chechnya. Kadyrov said the women had displayed “loose behavior” and speculated they were perhaps victims of "honor killings" by their own families. “We see a tendency for women to be forced into a humiliating social role in the North Caucases,” says Tatyana Lokshina, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Moscow. She said that courts traditionally have turned a blind eye to domestic violence in the region.

Last May, the U.S. State Department announced its intention to allocate $1.7 million in support of NGO programs in Russia’s North Caucasus, with almost half the money directed to helping NGO’s battle domestic violence. But it is unlikely that Western money will go far in changing local attitudes, and so authorities in Moscow will surely continue to struggle with how to protect women, whether at the beach, at the sauna or on the street, in Russia’s fast-transforming South.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Russia
KEYWORDS: chechnya; dagestan; dhimmitude; islam; jihad; muslims; sharia; shariah; terrorism

1 posted on 10/08/2011 7:49:23 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Named "Mountain Woman Beach,"

Well, hell, that could describe many US beaches!

Though I would go with "Beached Whale Beach", but that is just me.............

2 posted on 10/08/2011 7:53:35 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Eternal islam. Terrorizing and blowing up women to force the others to hide in burqas, while the men enjoy "wrestling" on the beach with one another, and gay old shoulder-riding games in the waves.

Problem is, they really are turned on by men and boys much more than women. They want the women to disappear except for baby-making and rearing. Otherwise, these men mainly enjoy a gay old time with each other.

3 posted on 10/08/2011 7:53:53 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The shadow of the burkha curtain draws itself across Europe. This is another point in history where we witness the growth of smothering oppression on the human spirit.


4 posted on 10/08/2011 7:57:23 PM PDT by marsh2
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To: Travis McGee

Gay old games and terrorizing women must be mighty tempting to people whose genetic profiles have been ruined through all that cousin marriage.


5 posted on 10/08/2011 7:57:58 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (It's the Tea Party's fault!)
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To: doorgunner69

you make your bed, you sleep in it


6 posted on 10/08/2011 8:07:38 PM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies.)
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To: elpadre

What sleeps in my bed is far, far from a beached whale, if that is what you are implying.


7 posted on 10/08/2011 8:12:39 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

So homosexual tendencies are but another result of inbreeding over many generations. Very believable given the unnatural aspect of incestuousness in the first place.

“Women for babies, boys for pleasure” is a saying throughout the Islamic world. I was deployed to Uzbekistan where most Muslims are secular and relations between the sexes are generally normal (i.e. they choose their own spouses and alcohol is an accepted part of social life). But both Uzbeks and U.S. Afghanistan veterans told of the horrid Afghan custom of “dancing boys” and their older male “protectors”. When I asked why don’t Afghans develop an interest in dancing women, I got only incredulous looks.

What a sick religion.


8 posted on 10/08/2011 8:33:15 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("Deport all Muslims. Nuke Mecca now. Death to Islam means freedom for all mankind.")
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To: doorgunner69
I mean if you choose to live under Sharia law then you live with the consequences.

the “make your bed, you lie in it” is an old saying that often refers to parents telling their daughters when she chooses a dirtbag as a life choice. You choose him, you're out of here - and other ways too. Nothing personal, never do I make personal references unless it is a compliment.

9 posted on 10/08/2011 8:43:59 PM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Honor Killings, ethnic cleansing. Radical Islam is great, isn’t it. It doesn’t seem to change no matter which race, which ethnic group, or geography. It’s the same everywhere and it’s spread by fear and intimidation. After reading this, I need another beer.


10 posted on 10/08/2011 8:49:05 PM PDT by Darren McCarty (Perry and Cain I can support, but no Romney)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“burkinis” LOL... that word alone made it worth the time it took to read this article.


11 posted on 10/08/2011 8:58:54 PM PDT by Gator113 (~ Just livin' life~)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I have a new idea for how to torture Mooselimbs. Take them to Orient beach on St.Maarten and cuff them to a lounge chair.
12 posted on 10/08/2011 8:59:05 PM PDT by BigCinBigD
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To: elpadre
Gotcha. Too many comments here about a foxy lady needing more "cheezeburgers" to be attractive. Maybe they ought to go check out these muzzie beaches.

Been some mentions in variousl places of muzzie women being decent under all those drapes. I have grave doubts about that. Why on earth should they care?

You marry the tent, You live with the contents........Poor bastids...........

13 posted on 10/08/2011 9:03:15 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The world falling to this; for this. The handwriting on our walls and more. We desperately need Leadership that recognizes the threat.

Allen West and Marco Rubio and Newt - the only ones that 'speak the name' - name the problem. Do not know Cain's opinion; nor Romney's or Perry's as the issue never brought into a debate or just Q & A; nor will it be.

This is a question/issue that stands, like the 'elephant in the room' per politically incorrect classification.

To our detriment. . .

14 posted on 10/08/2011 9:08:49 PM PDT by cricket (Let Freedom Ring. . .and Thank You, Steve Jobs...)
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To: elcid1970

I was speculating, thinking that they must not be that smart due to the inbreeding, therefore, the sh*t that they do might appeal to them more: it’s simple and, apart from bomb technology, really doesn’t take that much thought.

Of course, polygynous societies (not that Dagestan or Chechnya are necessarily such) can lead to frustrated, angry, unloved men putting on the bomb vest, or so I have read.


15 posted on 10/08/2011 9:37:32 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (It's the Tea Party's fault!)
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16 posted on 10/08/2011 11:14:00 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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