When 23-year-old Aishat Baimuradova left her home last year, she believed she at last had a chance to live the way she desired.
Originating in Chechnya, a conservative Muslim region in Russia, she cut her hair brief, stopped covering her head, removed part of her eyebrow and shared quirky selfies on Instagram.
She explained to her new friends she could at last feel free.
In October, Aishat was found dead in a leased flat in neighbouring Armenia. Police say she was killed.
Two people were seen leaving the building where she was found, including a woman Aishat had met not long before her death. Both reportedly left for Russia soon afterwards.
Russians do not need a passport to enter Armenia; their internal ID is sufficient. That also makes it an easy route for anyone trying to escape.
The Chechen Republic: A Region with Special Status
Chechnya, in Russia's North Caucasus, is often described by rights groups as a autonomous region - a place where power is highly centralized and loyalty to long-time leader Ramzan Kadyrov often supersedes laws and formal institutions.
For years, human rights organisations have recorded kidnappings, abuse and extrajudicial killings in the republic, as well as widespread targeting of those who dissent.
Chechen officials have consistently disputed these claims, complaining of inventions aimed at damaging the reputation of the region.
Track Record of Critics Murdered Abroad
Numerous well-known critics of Chechen authorities have been assassinated abroad.
In 2009, Umar Israilov, a former bodyguard of Ramzan Kadyrov, was murdered in Vienna, where he had sought asylum. Austrian authorities called the assassination politically motivated and associated the killers to Chechnya.
Former Chechen rebel Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was murdered in a Berlin park in 2019, in an attack attributed to Russian security services.
But Aishat Baimuradova is the first known Chechen woman to have died in suspicious circumstances, not long after leaving Russia.
Aishat's Journey to Freedom
Like many other women who leave the region, she had complained of being controlled by her family. She said she was pressured into a marriage, supervised, and prohibited from leaving home or using her phone.
Aishat reached in Armenia at the end of 2024 with the help of a aid network that helps people facing danger in the North Caucasus. She had expressed freely of conservative gender rules and the oppressive control women face in Chechnya.
At first, she worked in a small town, then moved to the capital, Yerevan, hoping for a superior job and more opportunities.
To many who flee, such public exposure is impossible. Most use pseudonyms, avoid showing their faces, and refuse to meet new people. Aishat selected a distinct path. "She really wanted a regular life," her friend who asked to remain anonymous said. "And she wanted to believe in people."
Kin Answer and Rejection
Her family tried to convince her to come back, but when nothing came of it they renounced her, according to support groups.
"They said to her: 'You are no longer our daughter or our wife. We won't touch you - just don't touch us,'" a spokesperson for the support organization explained.
Her uncle told local media the family had no involvement in her death.
Last Days and Questionable Contacts
On the night of her death, Aishat was with a woman she had recently met online, who stated to come from Dagestan, another Russian republic in the North Caucasus.
People who knew Aishat said it was the woman who had first made contact with her on social media, later coming to Armenia and asking her to parties.
A man recorded with her on CCTV as they left the building where Aishat's body was found was alleged by sources to be of Chechen origin. Investigative outlets named him as a relative of a businessman linked to Ramzan Kadyrov.
Official Reaction and Probe
Chechen authorities reject any connection to Baimuradova's death, criticizing such suggestions as a "terrorist information attack". Officials have also attacked groups assisting women who flee, accusing them of "undermining family traditions".
Armenian authorities say they are looking into two unnamed people in connection with Aishat Baimuradova's murder, but they have provided no further details about them.
Strategic Background
Ramzan Kadyrov is sensitive to people criticising Chechnya from abroad, says Michael Dennis, an expert on Chechen politics.
"The very existence of a diaspora is a evident signal to the entire world that something is wrong in Chechnya. It's a matter of individual honor and public reputation," Mr Dennis explained.
Since the early 2000s, asylum seekers from Chechnya have been coming to Europe - fleeing first the war and later Kadyrov's oppressive rule.
But changes to EU migration policy, followed by visa restrictions for Russians because of the war in Ukraine, have all but closed that route.
That leaves the South Caucasus, where Russians can travel visa-free, as the simplest escape route, but far from the safest.
Effect on Other Women Who Fled
In July, another escapee, 24-year-old Laura Avtorkhanova, was found in a shelter in Georgia by a group of male relatives who reportedly tried to coerce her into returning to Russia. After being questioned by police she was able to stay safely in Georgia.
For other Chechen women who have fled, Aishat's death has revived a fear that has troubled them since they left Russia.
Several have described how even before her murder they had stayed away of community events, avoided speaking Chechen in public and restricted their social media presence.
Now they worry it may not be enough to conceal from those who may want to punish them.
"The fear I've lived with all my life - imprinted in my DNA - has come back with new strength," said one escapee living in Western Europe, who asked to hide her name and precise location.
"It's like sleep paralysis: a monster appears, and I lie there frozen, staring into its eyes. It's the fear of being killed."
"You can escape," she said, "but you never really feel free."
