Social issues in occupied Crimea are resulting in growing tension and a spike in ethnicity- and religion-based aggression against Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar human rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudiyeva reported in a Facebook post.
Zudiyeva said that at least two attacks on Crimean Tatar women wearing Muslim headscarves have been reported over the past two months.
One such case occurred on 31 July in Bağçasaray, where a local attacked a woman with three young children at a playground. According to eyewitness accounts, the attacker made threats to “wipe out” Crimean Tatars and used obscene language. After police were called, she came back armed with a knife and started threatening another woman who had stood up for the victim.
The victim filed a complaint with the Russian law enforcement authorities, but no proper investigation into the incident has been opened and there have been attempts to file the incident as “minor hooliganism”, disregarding its being rooted in enthicity-based enmity and the fact that a weapon was used.
A similar case occurred Crimea’s Leninski district in late June 2026, when a married couple attempted to tear the headscarf off a Crimean Tatar neighbour during a quarrel. The Russian-installed court only held the attackers liable under administrative law for minor hooliganism, after which the pressure on the victim continued.
Lutfiye Zudiyeva urged people to document all such cases, contact human rights organisations, and to take action against manifestations of xenophobia and incitement to enmity.
Persecution of Lutfiye Zudiyeva
In May 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Zudiyeva to the “foreign agents” register. In a comment to IMI, Zudiyeva said that the news had not been unexpected to her as someone working to defend the people in Crimea.
In August 2025, Lutfiye Zudiyeva received a notice from the Russian Ministry of Justice summoning her for drawing up an administrative protocol. Zudiyeva was charged with violating the law on “foreign agents”. In September 2025, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow upheld the decision by the Russian Ministry of Justice to declare Lutfiye Zudiyeva a “foreign agent”, and in December of the same year the Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.
On 22 February 2024, officers of Russia’s Center for Combating Extremism searched Lutfiye Zudieva’s house. After the search, she was taken away to the counter-extremism center, but later released.
The police opened an administrative case against her on charges of abuse of freedom of mass information. The investigation was triggered by her Facebook post about the unlawful persecution of alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members, as she did not mention that Hizb ut-Tahrir is considered a terrorist organization by Russia, and also cited a Radio Liberty article without noting that the media outlet is considered a “foreign agent” by Russian law.
In March and April 2024, Russian-installed courts fined Zudiyeva, convicting her of “abusing the freedom of mass information.”
On 7 May 2024, Lutfiye Zudieva was handed a warning from the Russian Center for Combating Extremism.
In April 2026, the General Jurisdiction Cassation Court No. 2 in Moscow (Russia) dismissed a motion by Lutfiye Zudiyeva, who challenged her inclusion in the Russian “foreign agents” register.