Russia Persecutes 38 Women From Occupied Crimea On Political Grounds - Human Rights Defender

2025-10-18 12:04:09

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The statement was made by Eskender Bariiev, Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center and member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, during the OSCE Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, reports Ukrinform.

“There are 34 women in places of deprivation of freedom, seven of whom are under 35 years old, and three are over 60. Halyna Dovhopola is 70 years old. We know of 11 cases in which the FSB forcibly abducted women, concealed their whereabouts from relatives, and coerced them into giving the desired testimony. Only after the Crimean Tatar Resource Center publicly disclosed the locations of the abducted women, based on its own sources, were the occupiers forced to remove their incommunicado status and open criminal cases against them. There are cases where entire families were arrested - including a mother and daughter, three brothers, or a husband and wife - while a 9-year-old child was placed in an orphanage,” Bariiev said.

According to him, the occupiers accuse women of espionage,“discrediting” the Russian army, state treason, and involvement in the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion and in Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The human rights defender added that after the searches and arrests of four Crimean Tatar women - Esma Nimetulaieva, Nasiba Saidova, Elviza Alieva, and Fevziye Osmanova - on October 15, the situation with the persecution of women in Crimea has become even more alarming.

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“As of October 2025, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center has identified at least 38 politically persecuted women being held in pretrial detention centers or correctional colonies,” Bariiev noted.

He urged the OSCE to amend its National Action Plan“Women, Peace, Security”- including women political prisoners, women prisoners of war, and provisions on their exchange and rehabilitation.

As reported, Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group Olha Skrypnyk stated that Russian occupation administration is pursuing a deliberate policy of persecuting women in the temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea, and that treatment of women in Russian prisons has become increasingly harsh.

Photo: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine

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