Ismail Aliyevich Berdiyev (Karachay-Balkar: Бердилени Алиини джашы Исмаил-хаджи, romanized: Berdileni Aliini jashy Ismail-khaji; Russian: Исмаил Алиевич Бердиев; 27 February 1954 – 5 August 2024) was a Russian Sunni mufti from Karachay-Cherkessia.

He gained worldwide attention when he proclaimed that "all women" should be subjected to the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

[1] Ismail Berdiyev was born on 27 February 1954 in the village of Belye Body in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Aqsukent [ru] in Kazakhstan),[2] where his parents were expelled from North Caucasus with other Karachay people, when they were accused of collaboration with the Nazis in 1943 by Soviet regime.

[3] Berdiyev, the mufti of Russia's North Caucasus region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia,[4] stated that FGM 'does not contradict the dogmas of Islam',[citation needed] and that this was a way to 'eliminate sexual depravity'.

[1] He also claimed this was a way to reduce 'lechery' and 'sexuality', stating that "All women should be cut, so that there is no depravity on Earth..." The mufti made his comments following publication of a report by the Russian Justice Initiative (RJI), stating that FGM is widespread in some parts of Dagestan.