#wrinkledwomen: Why are Russian women posting 'scrunched-up selfies'?

Women have used Instagram to pose 'wrinkled selfies' in protest against a child rights official defending child marriage

Women have been posting angry "wrinkled" selfies on Instagram (mysweet55555 (Instagram))

Russian women have take to social media to post their own "wrinkled selfies" in protest against comments made by a top children’s rights official who defended child marriage in Chechnya.

Pavel Astakhov provoked fury when he defended the marriage of teenage girls to older men by saying it was necessary because women were wrinkled by the time they were 27.

In an interview with a Moscow-based radio station, Russian News Service, said in “exceptional services” the law regulating the age at which people can get married, which is officially 18 in Russia, could be changed by regional authorities.

He then added: "Let's not be hypocrites. There are places where women are already shriveled at age 27, and by our standards they look like they're 50. And, in general, the [Russian] Constitution forbids interference in citizens' personal lives.”

It was response to the wedding of a Chechnyan police chief to a 17-year-old girl on 16 May, which was supported by the Chechnyan leader and Putin loyalist, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Nazhud Guchigov, a police chief in the region’s southeastern Nozhai-Yurt district believed to be between 46 and 57 according to local media reports, married 17-year-old Kheda Goylabiyeva despite already having an older wife.

Russian women took to Instagram using the hashtags #wrinkledwomen and #сморщеннаяженщина to protest against Astakov's sexist comments.

Branding Astakhov a "hypocritical shauvinist (sic)" one woman, Lana Tabler said "Did I tell you Russia is extremely sexist? Some jerks do think they have the right to offend all the women and yet justify marriages of grown up men with under aged girls. I want to address women of all the world: no matter how old, you belong to yourself only. Ageing is not disgusting, men who tell you this are. "

Responding to the criticism,