Officials in Chechnya have announced a new informal requirement for women’s appearance: going out in public with an uncovered head is now effectively banned. The coming “explanatory talks” with those who do so were announced by Amir Sugaipov, an aide to the head of the republic and deputy youth minister.
On October 23, Sugaipov posted a photo of a young woman with loose hair and wrote that such fashion “will no longer pass here,” urging women to “put on headscarves and bands.” In an interview later published by the pro-government outlet Chechnya Today, he said a covered head, in his view, corresponds to aesthetics, religion, adat norms and tradition, while the absence of a scarf amounts to a challenge to those standards.
Sugaipov, previously known in the republic as a KVN comedy performer, was appointed an aide to Ramzan Kadyrov in 2024 to oversee youth-related matters. In 2025, he had already taken part in campaigns against boutique owners and bloggers: businesswomen were criticized over clothing ads showing models without headscarves, and some shops were later shut and sealed. In the autumn, he also demanded that popular bloggers register and warned that the rest would be “erased from social networks.”
Women interviewed by Novaya Gazeta Europe said the issue is not tradition but the authorities’ attempt to dictate how women should look.
“How we look at work, in the street, or when meeting friends should concern only us,”said Zaira, a 26-year-old resident of Grozny. In her view, the idea of wearing a narrow “band” has no real logic and serves only to remind women of their subordinate status.
Rights advocate Saida Sirazhudinova described such talks as administrative and psychological pressure. She said that during these conversations, girls’ phones are sometimes taken and checked, which amounts to interference in private life. In her opinion, the authorities are using pressure on women to establish broader control over society.
Interviewees also pointed to another contradiction: pressure is applied not only to women without headscarves, but also to those whom the authorities consider covered “too much.” Women wearing niqabs are reportedly detained in the street and publicly reprimanded. As a result, the acceptable degree of “modesty” in the republic is being defined not by religious norms, but by men in power.