Upwards of a thousand mostly Ukrainian women poured into the centre of Kyiv on Sunday morning to rail against gender inequality – even as their country fights for its very survival in what is now the fifth year of full-scale Russian aggression.
The celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8 has traditionally seen beaming maidens and matriarchs bearing flowers in the company of their male admirers. This year saw throngs of colourfully clad demonstrators chanting « Take your hands off women’s rights » and carrying huge banners with slogans like « Women’s rights are always an issue. » One issue in particular that brought the women out into the streets of the capital, basking anew in sunny spring weather, was a series of proposed changes to the country’s Civil Code that some see as backsliding on women’s rights. Marina, a mother of one, was among the demonstrators who gathered for a boisterous rally in front of the Kyiv Mayor’s Office.
She said: « We are here to protect the rights of women. Most people do not understand the full implications of these proposed changes. »
Among the more controversial proposed changes to the Code are the lowering of the marriage age to 14 and the introduction of subjective concepts such as « moral/ethical standards », which some believe could be easily wielded against the interests of women and girls.
However, for other participants, March 8 was a chance to highlight a broader range of challenges faced by women in wartime Ukraine, which has seen millions of its mothers, daughters and sisters seek refugee status abroad to escape the Russian war machine.
Some, however, were not so lucky. Twenty-seven-year-old ethnic Crimean Tatar Lenilie Umerova was also in front of the Mayor’s office, having returned from two years in a Russian prison, she said.
« I want to be the voice of those who do not have a voice, » she said, referring to her former Ukrainian female cellmates at Russia‘s infamous Lefortova prison in Moscow, where she said she was taken and mistreated after capture by Russian troops in 2022.
Now she works for the Center for Civil Liberties, which estimates that over 250 Ukrainian women – civilian and military – are still in Russian captivity.
Lenilie’s colleague, Natalia, said Ukrainian female POWs often do not get included in the prisoner exchanges carried out between Moscow and Kyiv.
« They [The Russians] don’t want them to tell what happened to them in captivity, » she said. Meanwhile, around 70,000 Ukrainian women currently serve in the country’s armed forces, she said.
Sunday’s rally spoke out for them and Ukrainian women in general, in the spirit of sororal solidarity against the backdrop of foreign invasion.
As one woman at the rally put it – also named Natalia and confined to a wheelchair – « We are all people, all Ukrainians but each a little different. »
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