When I was growing up in the 1980s, films about American Indians were very popular in the Soviet Union. A favourite was the East German film ‘Chingachgook’, set in 18th century America and starring the Yugoslav actor Gojko Mitić. We were sure that he was a real Indian – brave and noble, speaking a ‘primitive’ language, incredibly exotic in his feathers.
When I began working for the Heinrich Böll Foundation in the Russian North Caucasus ten years ago, I was naive in my understanding of the region. As part of my role I organised educational events on women and peace-building with local NGOs, and I epitomised the familiar “colonising missionary in a cork helmet” who wants to immediately free the woman of the East and change her life for the better with feminism.
As I listened to people’s stories, I would focus on their incredible traditions and customs, asking in detail about tales of ‘honour killings’ and blood feuds. But when we conducted a study of the lives and views of women and men in four North Caucasus republics, I was amazed not only by the differences between them, but also by the differences in society and values within a single republic.
