Chechnya

Zalina Shidieva disappeared shortly before Lucy Ash arrived in Chechnya

This week, a prominent human rights worker called Natalia Estemirova was shot dead in the Russian Republic of Chechnya.

She was one of the people interviewed by Lucy Ash investigating the treatment of women in Chechnya.

There are now disturbing reports of the police failing to investigate the increasingly common practice of the abduction of women, and of a recent series of murders and disappearances of women allegedly because of their "immoral" life-style.

Lucy Ash travels to Chechnya to ask what the uneasy peace there means for Chechen women.

BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents: Chechnya is broadcast on Thursday, 16 July, 2009 at 1102 BST and is repeated on Monday, 20 July, 2009 at 20:30 BST.

Reporter: Lucy Ash
Producer: Nick Sturdee

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