She Fought to the Death

This is the story of Doctor Aishat Magomedova, who, in the 1990s, opened an exceptional charity hospital for the women of Dagestan’s mountain villages. Aishat helped tens of thousands of women. And then it was all taken away from her.

Standing in front of the locked gate of the former charity hospital in Makhachkala, Marzhanat Abdulbasirova weeps. Through a gap in the gate you can make out the courtyard. Marzhanat was once the custodian here, and to this day she vividly recalls every exam room, every corner of the corridors.

You can get inside by scaling the window bars up onto the destroyed roof, then jumping down into one of the wards. This is exactly what I do, but at four a.m., so as not to attract the attention of passersby.