Russia has passed a law to partially decriminalise domestic violence – here the punk activist writes for Dazed on ‘opposing these misogynistic cannibals’
Russian parliament has officially decriminalised domestic violence. “We’re not offended when a husband beats his wife”, says senator Elena Mizulina (a woman!), whose role in Russian government is to express the most cannibalistic views of Russia’s so-called elite. She’s supporting severe restrictions on abortions, tax on divorce, condemning any gender and sex diversity. This moronic surrealism is fast turning into reality with the help of our Parliament, which prints laws faster than rabbits breed. Just like in America, it happens here too.
Strictly saying, Russia has never had a specific law against domestic violence. Victims of domestic violence have never been protected. Russian feminists have been fighting for the existence of this law for years. Domestic violence has simply never been recognised by Russian law enforcement system. Police don’t react to women’s reports of domestic abuses.
“Why did you come? He did not kill you,” – they would say to a woman who went to a police department. “When he will kill you, you can report, and we’ll investigate the murder.”
I’ve seen many women in prison, who after decades of humiliation decided to fight back, and they harmed or killed their husbands. The law about self-protection is never applied by Russian courts. All these women are in prison for 8, for 10 years – as murderers.
“If you’re experiencing domestic violence in Russia, you have no place to go. You have to stay with your abusing husband/dad/whoever. Until he kills you or you kill him” – Nadya Tolokonnikova
12,000 women die annually from domestic violence: 1 woman every 43 minutes. “If he beats you it means that he loves you” – this is an old Russian saying which mothers have been passing along to their daughters for centuries. The new law that decriminalises domestic violence has just strengthened and legalised this terrible situation which has taken place in my country for years. When cruel people with a lack of self-control know that they can beat their partner, or an old parent, or a kid, they can beat them every day, and they will never be punished for that.
If you’re experiencing domestic violence in Russia, you have no place to go. You have to stay with your abusing husband/dad/whoever. Until he kills you or you kill him.
It’d be unfair to say that we don’t have shelters for victims of domestic violence at all. We have 150 places in shelters in Moscow (a city of 12 million). We need more. Instead of helping those who’re trying to save women’s health and lives, our government obstructs their activity.
We have several amazing feminist hustlers and political kamikazes, who’re trying to provide these shelters to women – fighting with brutal Russian bureaucracy and the government which condemns every effort for justice as an intervention in Russian internal affairs, an attempt to ruin the country, or a malicious activity paid by the West.
Putin is building a new conservative order all around the world, he’s doing his best to create a retrograde, misogynistic, morally and economically corrupted empire. We’ve passed those ivory tower times when those who live in America had this luxury of not paying attention on what’s going on in Russia. We’ve passed the times when I could care just about Russia and don’t think about the US politics. Let’s care about each other, and let’s oppose these misogynistic cannibals who have grabbed the power all over the globe. Cut their greasy tentacles, don't let their neo-fascist plague spread.
Let’s be clear: it’s not “traditional values”, it’s oppression, it’s a support of violence and it’s a protection of old privileges. Fuck this shit.