In
October 2019, I finished my Masters in European Studies. Going back to Ukraine
was something that I wanted to do since 2017. That year, I spent 6 beautiful
months in Kyiv at Taras Shevchenko University and 3 inspiring weeks as an
English language teacher in Snihurivka. I’ve always wanted to experience
Eastern Ukraine, Severodonetsk and working with Vostok SOS was a clear choice
and a great opportunity. Rather than describing all of my tasks, I would like
to share one day of my Severodonetsk life.
It was a
nice snowy day when I walked to the office. On the way, thoughts about the upcoming
workshop were running through my mind, arranging and structuring ideas. To be
honest, it was quite a challenge going to schools and carrying out workshops on
human rights. At the time, my Russian language skills were not very strong and
finding the best way to communicate
so that everyone gets involved was the most difficult part. However, I still
enjoyed every part of this experience.
This was
the last day with my class and on Sunday, it was going to be the International
Women's Day, so it was the perfect opportunity to talk about women's rights.
During that week, a few people had asked me about this day:
“How do you feel about March, 8 coming from the Czech Republic where before 1989, just like in Ukraine, this day was used as an advertising campaign for the former regime rather than for women’s rights? Do you actually celebrate it?”
When I
got to the class, I talked about the main issues concerning women’s rights in
the Czech Republic and in Germany. Consequently, pupils were sharing their
experience and knowledge on women’s rights from their Ukrainian perspective.
As a
preparation for this workshop, I was going through news articles and read about
four women from three cities.
There was
the story of Dasha and Mila from Rovno who were kept by some men in an
apartment and could not flee until police had noticed them begging for help
from the apartment’s window.
There was
the story of Lenka from Prague who was on her way home when a man approached
her and groped her body under her dress.
And there
was the story of Marie from Leipzig who was murdered after hitchhiking and
getting into a stranger’s car.
“What do
you think have the stories of Dasha, Mila, Lenka and Marie in common”, I asked
the class at some point. In the chat room, a lot of
the reactions to the news articles were quite similar.
Why
did they go to the apartment? Was she alone in the city at night? What clothes
did she have on? What was the time when she was out? Why did she hitchhike on
her own as a woman?
These
questions are insulting the victim and they also do not target the
perpetrators. The blame is placed on the victim. Thus, after a fruitful
discussion and exchanging of opinions, we came to the conclusion that
gender-based violence and victim blaming are transnational issues and they should be
discussed regularly and openly regardless of the nationality that is written in
our passports.
Coming
back to the above-mentioned question on how I feel about the International
Women’s Day, I think it would be sad to forget this day just because it was
misused in history. On the contrary, I believe we should all make use of this
day to talk about and point out women’s rights violations.
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A mural painting on one of Severodonetsk buildings saying "Stop Violence Against Women". |
