Taliban the Russian way?

This scandalous video includes the terrorist’s wishful statement: “All of them [i.e., women frequenting cafes] should be raped.” To which his audience responded not with laughter but with a logic question: “What about women accompanied by men?” To which the career Russian Cossack responded by closing the discussion, saying, “You seem to forget that you are, all of you, Russians!”

The following day the LNR leader spoke on the Govorit Moskva [Moscow Speaking] Channel, saying what he had actually meant was a call for getting back to the good old morale, with the rapists being tried in “due course,” adding that no arrests would be made. As it is, Mozgovy-led militants and their comrades-in-arms are well armed and equipped; they may well interpret his statement as an order to do battle…

Olha VESNIANKA, feminist activist, expert, Project Campaign Against Sexism in Ukrainian Media and Politics, feels sure that one ought to take such statements about women going to cafes very seriously: “The LNR militants recognize no law. However you may feel about a man carrying weapons and threatening you, your life will depend on the way he treats you. This is an extremely dangerous trend; they have openly started fighting the women’s freedoms, and I mean not the political freedoms, but all of them!”

Natalia TSELOVALNICHENKO, head of the human rights organization in Luhansk, says rape and sexual slavery cases are on an upward curve in the terrorist-occupied territories; that such crimes are not always put on police record, primarily because the Ukrainian police (“militia”) has currently no jurisdiction over the LNR-DNR-controlled territories. Also, not all of the victims want legal help, feeling ashamed of themselves: “There are no statistics concerning such ATO victims; people just say that there are many of them. People standing in line to get fresh water share gossips about sexual slavery. All this makes one sure that this kind of slavery exists.”

What is the reason behind all this? Orthodox fundamentalism? We know that the militants often say they love Jesus and His Church. There is also the so-called Russian Orthodox Army known for its atrocities. Could this be a Russian version of Taliban, considering their hatred of girls going to college [getting smarter than their bearded, mostly illiterate men]? Or maybe the terrorists in Luhansk oblast are aware of their weak points and are tightening the screws to keep the populace scared and obedient?

The Day asked the experts from the east of our country for comment. Most of them just laughed at first, then got serious, even scared.

Tetiana YERESKOVA, Ph.D. (Sociology):

“If the LNR [leaders] say women going to cafes are their biggest problem, I can only congratulate them. As a sociologist, I just can’t treat the whole thing seriously. I don’t think there is anything to do with ideology. Most likely the terrorist leaders are trying to assert themselves and establish their rule on a certain territory; they are struggling to prove their importance. Practice shows that they should mean business, otherwise the threats can become a reality…

“Previously, no one paid attention to this trend in the east of Ukraine. Women were actively involved in all walks of life in Luhansk, Donetsk, and Odesa oblasts, all over Ukraine. If this is not what belongs to us, then whom does it belong to? If people keep silent about what’s happening, then we will soon witness lots of things that will make headlines and  remain absurd. Curfew in Donetsk oblast, with the populace being scared, staying home lest they grab them and throw them behind bars. On the other hand, the populace is disillusioned by their current way of life. There is no denying the fact.”

Olha CHYSTOKLETOVA, head of Donetsk-based Zhuky Drama Studio:

“There are units of Russian Cossacks deployed in Donetsk and Luhansk. Could their presence be the reason for the amazing directives? Another scenario involves Chechen and other militarists from the Caucasus in the east of Ukraine. From what I know, their women have a much lower social status than men. Most importantly, local men appear to have a different attitude to the fair sex, with the local anti-Ukraine militia being manned mostly by jobless drug addicts and cons. I mean men with their own problems. In fact, there were no such [cafe-going] restrictions in Donetsk oblast. I don’t see any problems with women’s rights in Ukraine, although it is difficult to discuss them in the regions that are a battlefield with Russia. I know that many women have resettled elsewhere in Ukraine, and that those who remained appear to put up with their hair-raising status.”

The Day also asked female activists elsewhere in Ukraine for comment.

Iryna KLIUCHKOVSKA, director, National University of Lviv Polytechnic’s International Institute for Education, Culture and Links with the Diaspora:

“Honestly speaking, this trend doesn’t surprise me at all. It is hard to comment on anything that happens in a country where everything happens as though seen in a distorting mirror. The kind of mentality that we see and hear about in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts is nothing new. Remember Lesia Ukrainka’s Boiarynia (The Noblewoman, 1914). The poet made everything clear when she wrote: ‘Stepan, where are we? / This is like Turkish slavery…’ I suggest you re-read the dialog between Oksana and Hanna who has adopted the Muscovite mentality after growing up in the Russian environment. This dialog reveals the cultural abyss between the women born in Ukraine and Russia, between their social standings, between their ways of life, between their mentalities. Like I said, there is nothing new, except that our women are being exposed to humiliation, courtesy of Russia. Small wonder, considering that women were always downtrodden in Muscovy, whereas in Ukraine women always played their important role in society, in the family, you name it. Lesia Ukrainka wrote, ‘Had we fewer women / Who, after doing their home chores, / Would have preferred Muscovite sable furs and money…’ I mean if we had fewer female turncoats in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in the current situation, all things considered.”

Iryna RED, social psychologist, volunteer, Kharkiv:

“What Mozgovy says is meant for his audience and they applaud. Indeed, the man wants to bring Ukraine back to the Middle Ages. His is a paternalistic, patriarchal discourse that became possible when a social disaster broke out in the Donbas. Their LNR and DNR formations are like the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. Proof of this is found in what some of the people who were the first to resettle from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk had to say about the situation, that it was getting from bad to worse, with an increasing number of drug addicts and alcoholics, and no authorities trying to do anything about the situation. It is also true that the populace cheered when Strelkov came and established his kind of law and order, along with the ‘right kind of family values.’ We watched those resettlers having problems communicating with their kids and were happy to watch some of them being institutionalized or taken care of by relatives. These [Russia-brainwashed] people will stand in line to be flagellated [by the Russian occupier and/or mercenaries] in the Donbas, come Saturday. They will cheer the occupation authority’s public executions of alcoholics, addicts, and drug barons. The terrorists know precisely what the populace wants: keep their girls at home, let them do their cross-stitch needlework. Otherwise they will be gang-raped, then brainwashed the Russian way. We know this because we see what’s happening in Kharkiv. We have an explosive situation here. We aren’t discussing pressing social issues, but we have an increasing number of homeless children. Our authorities are going through the motions of resolving this problem while actually relying on the volunteers, concerned citizens who are prepared and willing to help. Otherwise this society will go down the drain. Our television channels should bring up this topic. Emphasis should be on sports rather than playgrounds, on hobby groups cultivating healthy habits and sports. We have such facilities, but they are too expensive. Our [post-Soviet] sports facilities are being destroyed, including the Karazin Stadium which is about to cave in. Why do we love Mayor Kernes? Perhaps because he is into the same paternalistic discourse as Mozgovy, going through the motions of filling in the glaring social gap.”