When 23-year-old Aishat Baimuradova fled her home last year, she believed she finally had a chance to live the way she wanted.Coming from Chechnya, a conservative Muslim republic in Russia, she cut her hair short, stopped covering her head, shaved off part of her eyebrow and posted quirky selfies on Instagram.She told her new friends she could finally breathe.In October, Aishat was found dead in a rented flat in neighbouring Armenia. Police say she was murdered.Two people were seen leaving the building where she was found, including a woman Aishat had befriended not long before her death. Both reportedly left for Russia soon afterwards.Russians do not need a passport to enter Armenia; their internal ID is enough.
That also makes it an easy route for anyone trying to flee.Chechnya, in Russia’s North Caucasus, is often described by rights groups as a state within a state – a place where power is highly personalised and loyalty to long-standing leader Ramzan Kadyrov often over-rides laws and formal institutions.For years, human rights organisations have documented enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings in the republic, as well as systematic persecution of those who dissent.Chechen officials have consistently denied these allegations, complaining of fabrications aimed at discrediting the region. Several high-profile critics of Chechen authorities have been killed abroad.In 2009, Umar Israilov, a former bodyguard of Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot dead in Vienna, where he had sought asylum. Austrian authorities called the assassination politically motivated and linked the killers to Chechnya.Former Chechen rebel Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was shot dead in a Berlin park in 2019, in an attack blamed on Russian security services.But Aishat Baimuradova is the first known Chechen woman to have died in suspicious circumstances, not long after fleeing Russia.Like many other women who escape the region, she had complained of being controlled by her family.
She said she was forced into a marriage, monitored, and barred from leaving home or using her phone. The BBC was not able to reach her family for a comment.Aishat arrived in Armenia at the end of 2024 with the help of SK-SOS, a crisis group that helps people facing danger in the North Caucasus. She had complained openly of conservative gender rules and the suffocating control women face in Chechnya.At first, she worked in a small town, then moved to the capital, Yerevan, hoping for a better job and more opportunities.To many who flee, such visibility is unthinkable.
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Most use false names, avoid showing their faces, and refuse to meet new people. Aishat chose a different path. “She really wanted a normal life,” her friend who asked to remain anonymous told the BBC. “And she wanted to trust people.”
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