Pussy Riot Leader Pens Letter In Response To Russian Decriminalization Of Domestic Violence
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Pussy Riot Leader Pens Letter In Response To Russian Decriminalization Of Domestic Violence

Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova has penned a powerful call-to-arms in response to the horrific decriminalization of domestic violence in Russia earlier this week.

In a new op-ed for Dazed, she begins by slamming the Russian parliament, particularly senator Elena Mizulina, for their actions and complicity as a vehicle 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," Tolokonnikova writes. "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."

Asserting that victims of domestic violence have never been truly protected under Russian law, she points toward a dire system in which the police will not do anything besides say, "'When he will kill you, you can report, and we'll investigate the murder.'" Tolokonniva also points toward the 12,000 women who die from domestic violence annually, as well as the archaic cultural values that contribute to the problem, citing the "old Russian saying" of "'If he beats you it means that he loves you'".

"I've seen many women in prison, who after decades of humiliation decided to fight back, and they harmed or killed their husbands," she says. "The law about self-protection is never applied by Russian courts. All these women are in prison for 8, for 10 years – as murderers."

Calling for more women's shelters and for the government to stop obstructing aid, Tolokonnikova then says this is just another step toward Putin's "new conservative order all around the world," in which "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," she writes, finishing with, "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." Read her entire op-ed here.

[h/t Dazed]

photo by Ben Rosser/BFA.com