Over the past few days, a “massive scandal” has been actively unfolding in Russia surrounding the awarding of a medal of merit to writer Fauziya Bayramova from Naberezhnye Chelny by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, which is part of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation.
Bayramova, a Tatar writer, public figure, human rights activist, and PhD candidate in history, she received the medal on the occasion of her 75th birthday. She is the author of more than 30 fiction, journalistic, and poetry books, and hundreds of articles in Tatar and Russian.
The “resonance” being fanned by the aggressor-controlled “media” and “public figures” stems from the fact that in 2014, Bayramova condemned the occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea and was allegedly “observed in ties” with the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.
Now, Bayramova is being indiscriminately accused of everything under the sun, including allegedly “defending those who set fire to Orthodox churches,” calling her the “grandmother of Tatar nationalism” and even the “ideologist of Siberian radicals.”
Meanwhile, “public figures” controlled by the Russian secret services are demanding punishment for the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation, “the initiation of criminal cases,” and so on.
It should be noted that Bayramova was previously awarded the medal “In Memory of the 1000th Anniversary of Kazan,” the badge “For Contribution to Culture,” and she became a laureate of the Gayaz Iskhaki Prize in 2001.
It’s difficult to say how the persecution of Bayramova will end, but it’s already clear that the Islamophobia and Tatar phobia being whipped up in this regard extends far beyond the individual writer, as even the head of the aforementioned Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Gayaz Zakirov, was forced to acknowledge.
