On December 20 at the Bolgar Islamic Academy, staff and students discussed a new trend gaining popularity among young people. We are talking about such a concept as “body modification”, which implies changing the body by means of those or other plastic surgeries.

The moderators of the seminar were Malik Lyuhurov, a graduate of the Academy and Mufti Assistant of the Stavropol Territory, and Natalia Sedykh, a teacher-psychologist, and docent of the Department of Theology at the Academy. The event was also attended by Ildar Salakhov, head of staff, and Ruslan Sayakhov, vice-rector for scientific activities.

During the meeting, the participants reviewed the types of body modification, revealed the psychological reasons for its popularity among the youth and discussed the attitude of the Islamic doctrine to this phenomenon, characterized by a categorical aversion (prohibition), and considered various aspects of religious figures’ work with persons exposed to such subcultures.

Malik Lyukhurov reminded the audience about the attitude of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) toward tattoos and radical changes to one’s body in order to attract attention. In turn, according to Natalia Sedykh, there are psychological reasons behind the body modification craze, such as insecurity, desire to hide heartache and dissatisfaction with oneself.

In the course of the workshop, the participants also offered their own recommendations for people who are into body modification. In addition, it was jointly decided to draw up a memo for imams: “Help for young people who abuse body-modification”.