Bisexual Dagestani teen reports 4 months in brutal ‘conversion therapy’ paid by her parents

Elina Ukhmanova, a bisexual 18-year-old from Dagestan, claims having spent four months in captivity at the Alliance Recovery “rehab center” in Makhachkala, undergoing a violent conversion treatment at the behest of her parents.

Meduza learned her story from SK SOS, a Northern Caucasus LGBTQ crisis group.

Ukhmanova says that she had twice fled from her parents’ home, because of physical and emotional violence in her family. After her second escape attempt, she was tracked down by two men, who forcibly brought her to Alliance Recovery. Ukhmanova believes they did this at her parents’ request, and that her parents had paid to have their daughter “cured” of bisexuality and atheism.

Alliance Recovery positions itself as a treatment center, but isn’t a registered medical facility.

According to Ukhmanova, she and other people kept at the “rehab” were subjected to violence, handcuffed to handrails, and left to hang suspended for long periods. People were also refused food, and forced to do 400 squats or 200 pushups in a row. Ukhmanova says that people who didn’t get along were often handcuffed together.

After four months at the center, Ukhmanova’s parents came and took her home. In December, she contacted the police, asking for an investigation in connection with unlawful imprisonment and unauthorized medical practice.

SK SOS crisis workers believe that “Elina’s case isn’t unique,” and that “unscientific conversion therapies are widely practiced in the Northern Caucasus, in the belief that they can ‘cure’ a person of homosexuality.” These practices often involve violence, said a crisis group staff member.