Accessibility links

Breaking News

Daghestan Head Faces Ire Over Remarks About 'Pretty Girls' And 'Cows'


Daghestani politician Ramazan Abdulatipov (file photo)
Daghestani politician Ramazan Abdulatipov (file photo)

The veteran politician who heads Russia's Daghestan region is facing criticism after suggesting that some school employees in the North Caucasus republic look like "cows."

After a hail of criticism targeting Ramazan Abdulatipov on social media, a lawmaker in Daghestan took the regional leader to task with a one-man protest on the central square in the capital, Makhachkala, on May 3.

Along with a poster denouncing bribery, Communist lawmaker Marat Aslanov held a sign featuring verses from beloved Daghestani poet Rasul Gamzatov, who died in 2003.

Next to a verse that hails "the women of mountains," the words "fat cows" were written in red and crossed out. https://dag.life/2017/05/03/deputat-parlamenta-dagestana-ot-kprf-vyshel-na-odinochnyj-piket-v-mahachkale/

Aslanov said that he was protesting against recent statements by Abdulatipov.

At a meeting with education officials on April 26, Abdulatipov urged school principals to hire "pretty girls" as deputies and complained that "now you come to a school and see only cows there."

He spoke after praising the work of an ethnic Russian woman who had been a deputy education minister in the region and became deputy prime minister, prompting some to accuse him of insulting women from non-Russian ethnic groups in Daghestan.

At the same session, Abdulatipov, 70, said that he had to bribe a Russian agency that controls educational institutions when he was a university rector.

With reporting by Chernovik and Kavkazsky Uzel
  • 16x9 Image

    RFE/RL

    RFE/RL journalists report the news in 27 languages in 23 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established. We provide what many people cannot get locally: uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate.

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG