Give it a miss
Sir: Isabel Wolff gave us a smile here by choosing, for her 'sloe-eyed, swimsuited beauty' who steps on to the Las Vegas stage in the 1995 Miss World Competition, Miss Checheno-Ingushetia (`Roll up those maps', 26 September).
The Chechens and the Ingushi are among the most fanatical of the Muslims of the former Soviet Union, practising endogamy and polygamy and, in some of the stricter Sufi clans, imposing the death sentence for religious transgressions. Two decrees last year will give you the picture: one banned male gynaecologists, the other required adult males to carry guns. If there is a chance of a swimsuited Miss Checheno-Ingushetia turning up at I-As Vegas in 1995, I would advise readers to steer well clear of the place, possibly until the turn of the century.
Robert Haupt
29 Kalyaevskaya Street, Moscow, Russia
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