Story By: Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
This Russian teenager says her mother has abducted her before tying her up and beating her because she told her she was a lesbian.
Sevgia Ismailova, 18, originally from the northern Russian city of Norilsk, in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region a second-year student at Krasnoyarsk State Medical University who says her mother has abducted her after she told her she was a lesbian.
Ismailova says her mother abducted her and took her to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, where the family currently lives.
The family are reportedly keeping the girl in their house and have taken her phone, money and important documentation off her.
Ismailova sent a message to her friend and classmate Polina Vavilina from her younger brother’s phone, saying: “My aunt beat me on my face until I was almost unconscious, my uncle hit me on my face as well – then my nose bled.
“My mother hit me on the head with a metal shoehorn from which I got a haematoma. All this violence is caused by me refusing to live in Baku, but they don’t understand – they want me to listen and do what they force me to do”.
Her relatives have reportedly rejected her homosexuality and are trying to make her follow local traditions by getting married to a man as soon as possible.
The desperate girl wants her case to be publicised and added: “I’m 18 years old and I’m a second-year student at Krasnoyarsk Medical University and I don’t want to be kicked out for missing the lessons. I don’t want this to happen.
“For me to not escape they tied up my arms and feet and let me sleep in that position for the whole night. They later set me free from the rope when I pretended I agreed with what they had previously told me.”
The Russian police are investigating the case. Ismailova reportedly does not want to call the Azerbaijani police because she is afraid they will force her to stay with her family. There have been no updates on the case from the Russian police.
According to reports, the Medical University know of the case because of local media coverage but have refused to comment on it when approached by reporters.
Ismailova and her classmate are working to raise awareness of the case to solve the issue.
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