West Influence On Transformation Process Of Youth'S Family Institute: The Chechen Aspect

Abstract

Foreign and domestic experience shows that the family, which is the main link in society, has a decisive influence on the formation of the social tension of this society. Since the state of the family can change under the influence of external factors of social significance (socio-economic, psychological, legal, etc.), it can change, as well as social tension, depending on the characteristics of its change, can increase or decrease. The interest in studying the institution of the family from the perspective of Chechen society is dictated, first of all, by the ongoing processes of transformation, which affect the modern youth perception and interpretation of the family institution as such, family values, traditions, and customs of Chechen traditional culture. By historical standards, the transformational changes in traditional Chechen society in the 20th century were very controversial and took place at a very fast pace, which in turn led to changes in the nature of perception of family relations and the content of their values among modern Chechen youth, and, as a result, in evolution of family Institute. That is why it is so important to track the features of these processes in order to control their impact on social tension in society.

Keywords: FamilyChechen societywestern influencefamily transformation

Introduction

One of the key factors influencing the development of the institution of the family in modern society is the wide influence of the West. To begin with, the family has a special place in the life of Muslims. Caring for relatives, spouse, children is considered a part of worship. The creation of a family is an essential part of maintaining family ties and procreation. The Almighty charged Muslims to marry and thus continue the clan.

However, in the West, as the organization of people's private life changes, a revision of the concept of “family” takes place. The opposition “family” – “non-traditional family forms”, which was actively used until the beginning of the 80s, did not reflect real practices when the “traditional family” became very diverse.

Problem Statement

In western cities and countries, the conscious separation of spouses has spread. Partners may or may not be legally married, may or may not have a common child. This form of relationship by European experts is designated as LAT ("living apart together" – separately, but together), this was formerly called business marriage.

It was the influence of the West that had an effect on the spread of voluntary childlessness in Russia. The main justification for voluntary childlessness, from the point of view of the modernist paradigm, is democratization in the choice of demographic behavior (Ibragimova & Otaev, 2017).

Global civilizational changes taking place around the world, affecting political and social relations, economic and financial structures, forms of organization of human life, are changing the traditional world. A significant representative of ideological influence is the media, and Chechen society is no exception. The leading role in the formation of a standardized form of family and marriage behavior of the Chechen Republic youth today is increasingly played by television. Unlike the newspapers and radio broadcasts, television is characterized by a combination of audio and visual channels of perception in the process of consumption of television products by a person, which significantly increases the impact of information. Various television series, feature films, especially Western production, programs about the families of famous people, sensational messages about the personal lives of stars and the like are of great importance in this process.

The media product such as social advertising, realized through social networks, which are typical for modern youth, is becoming increasingly widespread. The specificity of the advertising message is due to limited time and the desire to achieve maximum impact on the preferences, tastes of the consumer, audience, puts it in the first place in the process of formation and consolidation of stereotypes, norms and principles of family behavior, family and marriage, gender roles, etc.

Research Questions

Consequently, it would be reasonable to consider the process of the influence of television on family ideology, and how much the Western movement through the media can modify it. It is worth saying that the repetition of the same type of family schemes in the media devalues human relations. Instead of searching for possible ways for spouses, children, common goals and their achievement to come together, young people are taught to give preferences to the proposed patterns of marriage and family behavior without their own subjective assessments. The media produce certain external attributes of a “happy family” (the housing in which the family lives; clothes; appearance; grooming of the couple and their children), while leveling the content of relations between family members (Zhupnik, 2018).

The global Internet information network negatively affects the formation of traditional family values. Chechen youth prefers Internet communication, spending time on social networks (Instagram, Telegram, Whatsapp), ceases to value families, believing that at any time they can create new ones. The freedom of choice of communication on social networks, on dating sites corrupts, creating the illusion that there are a huge number of people around and you can always find a mate. People become less tolerant of the shortcomings of others and in such circumstances are in no hurry to start a family. In addition, a large amount of video content (films, series, videos) is posted on the Internet, a significant part of which does not promote family values, but, on the contrary, depreciates. Today, although the program is being implemented in the Chechen Republic as part of the institution of the family, there is a shortage of high-quality television programs and publications that would encourage young people to start a family, give birth and raise children, and help those who have already started a family. Young people today are little interested in learning, science, research activities. For most of them, the main goal is to graduate from high school and immediately become a big boss, have a job, get a high salary, and do nothing. Today, most young people are not able to think rationally, are not ready to imagine and make decisions on their own. More and more young boys and girls are in no hurry to start a family, linking their own implementation with career growth. Girls tend to marry foreigners because they think that being abroad they have a carefree and prosperous life. People are trying to leave the Chechen Republic in search of a better life.

When the basis of the doctrine of the West began to come up with two main ideas (both of which are contrary to Islam) – the separation of religion from life and the idea of absolute freedoms – they also became the basis of the view on family in the West. Lawmakers, creating a family code, focused on guaranteeing personal freedoms and separation of religion, which explains the decline in the family value system in Western society and, as a result, decay, chaos and crisis, affecting both individually and the society. The concept of a family was limited to the cohabitation of two people, independently, in what form – a man with a woman, a man with a man or a woman with a woman, and it became possible to have children both through adoption, and even through surrogacy (Ekhaeva, 2016).

Absolute freedoms and the eradication of religion from life allowed the Western legislator to intervene in the institution of the family and turn all the provisions related to it into questions of "personal status", concerning each member of the family personally, who has his or her own individual opinion, taking into account the supremacy of freedoms of other family members. Same-sex marriages, marriages between close relatives (incest), extramarital relations, single mothers giving birth “for themselves”, childbirth from incest, divorce, inheritance and guardianship became legal, everything turned out to be a matter of individual freedoms that exalted personal interest above the public.

Despite the depravity of the Western doctrine and the systems flowing from it, nevertheless, in many respects, Westerners agree on the laws adopted despite their anomalousness and failure, which indicates a state of harmony between the idea and the system in the West.

However, the crisis of the institution of the family in Muslim countries is of a different nature.

Purpose of the Study

In this article the author attempted to consider the features of the process of family institution transformation among young people under the influence of the West.

Research Methods

When preparing the material for this article, theoretical research methods were used: analysis and comparisons. Considered the ethnic specificity, the authors analyzed the national features of building the institution of the family and the features of its functioning in accordance with the national adats. It was found that the Muslim family today lives in a state of dissociation between a religion in which it believes, and which does not tend to be separated from life, and legislation based on the separation of religion from life. Such a mixture destroys, and the position of the individual and society becomes doubly crisis (Muskhanova, 2015).

Creating a family, a person becomes protected from the commission of serious sins. One of these is adultery (zina).

Lawful marriage, established by the state (in the registry office), is not considered valid in Islam, because the requirements of the Sharia are not respected there.

The Almighty in the Qur'an and through the hadiths of the Prophet conveyed to the people the rules that will help in family life. And the observance of these conditions can give protection to a woman in society in the event of severe life cases. For example, this is a makhr for a spouse, which allows you to provide material support in the event of the death of the husband or in case of divorce. Witnesses serve as living confirmation that the marriage is concluded and the woman officially in the eyes of the public bears the status of a married woman, and not a lover or cohabitant.

Creating a family is not a coercion for either side. The main principles of choosing a life partner are monotheism, godly fear, mutual respect and good attitude towards parents. Every Muslim should strive to possess knowledge in order to pass it on to children and raise righteous descendants (Alikhanova, 2015).

According to Sharia, a man has the right to simultaneously marry four women who are not siblings to each other. However, along with this right, the spouse has great duties and responsibilities.

There are criteria by which a man can take another wife. The Almighty allows, but warns, that a Muslim cannot be fair to all his wives. This is a very important circumstance, since on Judgment Day he will be responsible for how he treated his spouses, whether he oppressed any of them, or if he did not infringe on his rights.

The family is the fortress of a human faith. Muslims should take all responsibility to start it.

The family is of great importance for the preservation of a society, regardless of its ethnic and religious composition. Those societies where people do not attach importance to marriage are doomed to inevitable destruction and extinction (Nataev, 2015).

The family, providing social reproduction, has a huge impact on the formation of personality, providing its primary socialization, forming a sense of integrity.

The family inculcates moral standards and behavior patterns, including mutual moral responsibility, mutual assistance. It provides a qualitative variety of forms of communication, human interactions in various spheres of life.

Findings

In general, the family, being an ally of society in solving its problems, performs the most important social functions, including the development of culture and the economy.

From the point of view of the state in its most general form, it can be argued that the family is the main link in the formation and accumulation of human capital.

In this context, one can agree with the statement that a violation of the normal activities of this social institution poses a threat to human civilization.

However, at present, this social institution is undergoing a deep crisis, characteristic of both developed and developing countries. The reasons are many factors. The first is global social changes, cultural transformation, which directly affect the decline in the importance of the institution of the family.

Of great importance are the socio-economic reasons, the impact of the economic crisis, from which young people are primarily affected.

It should also be borne in mind that in the conditions of post-Soviet countries, over two decades ago, the family transitioned from the Soviet to a modern, aimed primarily at self-realization and self-expression of individuals. All these factors directly affect the fact that the institution of the family in the republic is undergoing a complex process of transformation, a crisis. This is reflected primarily at the increased level of divorces.

Given the magnitude and multidimensionality of factors affecting the decline in the importance of the institution of marriage, the family, first, support should be from the state, proportional to the challenges that the institution of the family faces today.

At the same time, the efforts of citizens themselves, the development of new professions and specialties, and a higher level of ability to compete in the labor market will be of great importance. Separately, it is worth noting that maintaining the stability of the family, its well-being, requires its members to constantly organize family life, moral maturity.

A separate recommendation that experts give is the importance of increasing the prestige of the family in the public mind, the value of family lifestyle. In general, the number of marriages is growing in the Chechen Republic, moreover, experts say that young people began to approach the issue of creating a family more consciously. These factors are certainly encouraging.

In the process of comparing the statistical material, it was found that in the Chechen Republic, according to the results of the first half of 2019, the strongest families were registered – 0.7 divorces per thousand inhabitants, which is a record figure for Russia.

The strongest families are also located in the North Caucasus: the average in the North Caucasus Federal District – 1.7 divorces per thousand inhabitants – is the minimum in the country and two and a half times lower than the average in Russia.

In addition, the Chechen Republic occupies a leading position in terms of natural population growth in the first half of 2019. In the region, there were 17 babies per thousand inhabitants, with 4.5 dead – an increase of 12.7 %.

Data on the natural movement of the population in the regions of Russia in the first half of this year are published on the official website of Russian federal statistics service.

Among the leaders in population growth, except for the Chechen Republic, Ingushetia (almost 15 newborns and less than three deaths per thousand inhabitants of the republic – an increase of 12 %), as well as the Republic of Tuva (19 newborns).

In total, according to the results of the first half of the year, 9.9 newborns per thousand inhabitants appeared in Russia – a year ago this indicator was 10.8. Natural decline amounted to 2.7 % of Russians (ChechenStat, 2019).

An important difference between the Caucasus and the rest of Russia does not concern the number of children per woman, but the age of the mother at the birth of the first child. In the Chechen Republic, girls marry early and become mothers earlier, which means that they are more likely to give birth to more babies.

There are practically no illegitimate children in the Chechen Republic, unlike other regions (although many marriages are registered not at their conclusion, which most often takes place according to the Islamic rite, but later, for example, immediately after the birth of the first child). Girls, getting married early, do not have time to get a professional education and form an independent life trajectory. In Russia, overall, another trend prevails: over the past two decades, the age of the mother at the birth of her first child has been increasing from year to year and now exceeds 25 years.

Fertility is determined not only by these factors, but also by the traditional way of life. Among the Vainakh peoples, the older generation has a great influence on the family, including reproductive attitudes. In addition, in Chechnya, in the 2000s high rates could be related to the fact that couples who did not dare to do it during the war began to have children. But this is only an assumption, since there were no opinion polls of such a plan in the republic.

Of course, the value of a family in the Chechen Republic is higher than in Russia as a whole. But it should be borne in mind that in the Chechen Republic, second-generation citizens enter the childbearing age – children of people who previously moved from villages (massive, landslide migration from villages to cities began in the 1990s). With a change in the territorial residence and, consequently, the social environment, value guidelines tend to change due to the adjustment of the environment for the person. World experience shows that immigrants do not affect the birth rate of indigenous people. More often, on the contrary, they adapt to demographic settings in the new territory.

In the Chechen Republic at this stage, constant care for large families is being shown, preschool institutions and children's hospitals are being built. There are no orphanages and street children in the republic. It is considered indecent in society not to have children in a family. In any Chechen family, the true purpose of people uniting in order to create a family is to continue the family and raise children. Of great importance is healthy lifestyle of married young people.

Deeply thought-out work on spiritual and moral education is being carried out, which has made it possible to significantly reduce the level of consumption of alcoholic beverages and drugs. A clergy commission has been set up in the Chechen Republic to help reunite broken families. Over the past two to three years, the commission has been able to reunite more than one thousand families.

The family in the Chechen Republic is actively switching to Islamic regulation. According to the results of a study of religious traditions in the context of the Islamic trend, it was found that in an Islamic environment a woman can marry many times, especially if her husbands died (Nataev, 2015).

You cannot marry a non-Muslim – this thesis limits the choice for women, provides some sealing of social space. The result is not only the preservation of lifestyles, but also the minimization of external competition.

Degradation of family status, the spread of the phenomenon of divorce and the daily growth of these negative statistics, an increase in the number of unmarried women, their hostility to marriage and their fear of family ties, a decline in family ties, a conflict of family roles, the loss of the role of motherhood and marital relations along with economic difficulties and difficult living conditions – these factors affect negatively the family and are even more aggravated by the prevailing state of dissociation between laws and laws. Such is the reality of the Muslim family today, which cannot be denied.

The personality of a Muslim, who lives within society, is based on harmony and consent, which makes him a balanced, self-disciplined person. The actions are controlled by his concepts, in which he believes, and when doing them, he does not lose touch with himself, with the Creator and other people. His adherence to laws comes from within, thanks to godly fear; the execution of laws is given to him easily and gives him reassurance; he respects his role in society and in the family to which he belongs or which he builds, considering it an impregnable fortress protected by the laws of Allah and His Messenger. Such a family is strong, strong, creative and merged with the Ummah to which it belongs and is responsive to the state in which it resides.

Islam prescribes the rights of women and their position. Contrary to popular stereotypes, she is not humiliated or infringed. If you study Islamic law more deeply, it becomes clear that a wife, mother, daughter has a high status and has more rights than it seems at first glance. All canons are aimed at ensuring that the spouse or father can protect and provide material support for his family. The head of the family solves many issues, but he also bears all responsibility for each household (Betilmerzaeva & Betilmerzaeva, 2017).

In confirmation of the fact that a woman occupies a high position in the Islamic worldview, there are hadiths that say: “Paradise is under the feet of mothers,” “Looking at her daughter with a smile, the father receives twice as much reward than for his son,” “Righteous wife is half the iman for the husband. " And in the Koran, a whole surah is dedicated to a woman.

In other words, the family for Muslims is not only a sacred duty, but also a way to achieve the satisfaction of the Almighty. It helps a person to refrain from the forbidden, to find the meaning of life and support, to strengthen their relationship with their parents. After all, only one who has children can understand what feelings his father and mother feel for him, and how painful it is to offend them.

Man is a social being and cannot live alone. The Highest created man and woman, making them spouses. In the Koran, the relationship between husband and wife is called “libas” which means “clothing,” because each spouse is clothing for the other, which emphasizes their mutual need.

Conclusion

The main factors that influence the processes of transformation of the Chechen family axiological attitudes are historical, cultural and ideological conditions and information factors. In modern conditions, the problems of the functioning of the family social institution cannot be solved if the ideology of the value of the traditional family does not begin to be produced and naturally enter the public consciousness in the Chechen Republic. The state needs to regulate the formation of value orientations of society, directing the development of relevant potentials towards the optimum of ensuring the country's viability. Now we need an ideology of education based on traditional spiritual and moral values ​​inherent in the republic. An ideology is needed where the family, school, social organizations, and the media acted purposefully, reinforcing the positive role of the state in the life of the family and society on a qualitatively new basis – the priority of family upbringing of children, universal values, values ​​of the family lifestyle, human values and his life, thereby shifting the anti-family guidelines dictated by the Western movement of modern Chechen youth. At this stage, in our opinion, religious affiliation and discipline to some extent hinder the active introduction of Western opinion within the framework of a family institution, although it makes some adjustments.

References

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