No Western values

Chechen study: The crazy world of moral guardians

Bloody feuds characterize the Chechen community, with President Ramzan Kadyrov's arm reaching as far as Austria.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Martin Jöchl, Reuters/Andrew Kelly, Urbantschitsch Mario, Stefan Steinkogler, Agentur)

Chechens living in Austria repeatedly make the headlines with bloody clan fights, jihadism and moral guardians. In a recent study, women and men provide insights into the strictly patriarchal social life and why Western lifestyles are rejected.

With more than 40,000 Chechens, Austria is home to one of the largest communities in Europe, half of whom live in Vienna, not always without conflict. For example, self-appointed moral guardians in Vienna - including at Handelskai - have already caused outrage. Boys had tried to implement Sharia (Islamic law) according to their own interpretation.

In addition, the proportion of those who join jihadist groups in Syria is particularly high among Austro-Chechens. A study by the Documentation Center for Political Islam in cooperation with the German Council on Foreign Relations has investigated how this comes about. The arm of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov reaches far into the diaspora.

Re-enactment of the murder of dissident Umar Israilov in Vienna-Floridsdorf in 2009

(Bild: Andi Schiel)

Fleeing with the family
The majority of Chechens came to Europe by fleeing from the Russian army and its allies in the North Caucasus, particularly during the two Chechen wars, a conflict that still affects people today. In the interviews, both male and female interviewees reported that their first contact with IS was via the internet or social media.

It is difficult for parents to control their children's internet activities. As the Kadyrov clan is responsible for clan detention in Chechnya, people flee as a family. 

Vienna-Handelskai hotspot: moral guardians are always up to mischief here.

(Bild: Viktoria Graf, Krone KREATIV)

Chechen bloodline preserved
Women in the Chechen community cannot choose their own partners; community pressure forces them to cover their bodies. The young men rely on Chechen customary law according to the pre-Islamic traditions of Adat, which is strongly patriarchal. The guardians of morality focus primarily on the (in their eyes illegal or frowned upon) behavior of girls and women from their own community, in an attempt to undermine their right to self-determination.

International research collaborations are important because they make it possible to adequately analyze transnational structures that extend beyond Austria.

Lisa Fellhofer,  Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam

Bild: krone.tv

They are particularly directed against "Western" forms of behavior and want to preserve the "Chechen bloodline" at all costs. According to the results of the study, one of the main motives is to prevent relationships and marriages between Chechen women and men from outside the community. Social media channels are also scoured for this purpose.

Moral guardians give each other tips in online groups
Women are threatened and even injured. Victims report that photos in swimwear or a relationship with a non-Chechen are enough for the morality watchdogs. The pictures were then hung up in mosques to draw attention to the woman's alleged misconduct. The moral guardians organize their activities via online chat groups. The causes of this development, as the study shows, lie above all in the lack of prospects, combined with the instrumentalization of religion as an "ideology of resistance".