Wards – NC SOS

Wards

People we have already helped

We only tell stories that have become public. Most of our mentees remain anonymous for security reasons.

Amin Dzhabrailov

Amin Dzhabrailov, a resident of Grozny, became the first ethnic Chechen to publicly speak out about the torture and persecution of gay men in Chechnya. Prior to him, only Maxim…

Seda Suleimanova

Seda was facing the prospect of a forced marriage, just like her sisters. Refusing to accept this imposed fate led to conflict within her family. Her mother constantly monitored her…

Rizvan, a resident of Chechnya, first encountered police discrimination due to his sexual identity in the spring of 2017. This was when the systematic persecution of gay men began in…

Vika (name changed for security reasons) lived in the village of Kirovaul in Dagestan, a republic in Russia located in the North Caucasus. After her seventh grade, her relatives forced…

Sara Bibulatova

Sara was born in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, but her passport lists Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, as her place of birth. Her father fled Russia due to being…

Marina Yandieva

Marina Yandieva, from Ingushetia—a republic in the North Caucasus region of Russia—attempted to escape from her home twice. In 2011, she began studying at a university in Moscow, but in…

At the end of 2022, Eva (name changed for safety reasons), a Chechen woman, faced severe backlash after her 14-year-old daughter, Alina, had an argument with a schoolmate. When the…

Idris Arsamikov

Idris was detained in Chechnya in 2017 on suspicion of being gay. The police tortured him to force a confession. He was later released but warned that they would come…

Hadijat Hizrieva, Patimat Hizrieva, Aminat Gazimagomedova and Patimat Magomedova from Dagestan were regularly abused — physically and psychologically by their relatives. As children they underwent “female circumcision” surgery. In spring…

Maxim was the first person to speak openly about the anti-gay purge in Chechnya. It was through Maxim’s testimony that the world learned about the critical situation regarding the rights…