Kadyrov orders shorter beards and criticises full-face veiling in Chechnya

A directive aimed at men and women

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has told young men in the Russian republic to shorten very long beards and criticised women who cover themselves completely with veils. Meduza reported the comments on September 9 from the regional outlet Chechnya Today. Kadyrov framed both interventions as a defence of Chechen religious and cultural practice against styles that he portrayed as imported, performative or disconnected from genuine observance.

For men, the directive focused on long beards and shortened trousers associated with particular interpretations of Islamic practice. Kadyrov argued that some young people were adopting these markers as fashion rather than religion and called for beards to be worn in accordance with his account of the Sunnah. For women, he said full covering was an Arab rather than Chechen custom and asserted that the burqa had not traditionally been worn in Chechnya.

A policy pattern, not an isolated fashion comment

The remarks matter because pronouncements by Chechnya’s leadership can carry administrative and social force even when they are not presented as legislation. Regional officials have previously intervened in women’s clothing, including campaigns promoting head coverings while objecting to garments that conceal the face. Kadyrov’s new comments again place the government in the role of defining which forms of Islamic appearance are acceptable in public.

The apparent contradiction is central to the development. Women may be pressured to cover their hair while also being criticised for covering too much; men may be encouraged to display religious conformity while being warned against styles associated with non-local traditions. The practical result is not a simple secular restriction or religious mandate but a state-supported code tied to the leadership’s definition of Chechen identity.

Human-rights context

United Nations treaty-body scrutiny has repeatedly raised concerns about discrimination and the regulation of women’s lives in the North Caucasus. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s most recent listed concluding observations for Russia provide the institutional framework for assessing such regional practices: the state remains responsible for protecting women from discrimination throughout its territory, including where informal or customary rules shape daily life.

What to watch is whether Kadyrov’s statements are followed by police checks, school or workplace instructions, or so-called educational conversations with residents. No formal penalty was announced in the report, so it would be premature to describe the comments as a new criminal prohibition. Their immediate significance is political and administrative: Chechnya’s most powerful official has again publicly prescribed acceptable religious appearance for both sexes.