On July 13, Olga Karach gave a speech “How feminists have become enemies for the Belarusian state” in front of 30 initiatives of Berlin feminists. Olga Karach spoke about the repression of Belarusian women who fight for their rights – and for the most basic rights. For the right to vote, for the right to freedom of opinion, for the right to choose a profession and where to work.

The report provided statistics of repressed women during the protests in Belarus. Olga Karach also spoke about the facts of torture of Belarusian women in prisons. In her opinion, gender-oriented repression is one of the current problems in Belarus.

The Belarusian regime represses men and women in completely different ways. More subtle methods are used to put pressure on women, not only arrests or detentions – women in Belarus are often subjected to punitive psychiatry, threats of removal and the removal of children from their families, and economic pressure.

The struggle of women for their rights in Belarus is very similar to the struggle of a woman who has lived with her abusive husband for almost 30 years and is trying to get a divorce, but this psychopath continues to live with her in the same apartment. And Belarusian women are trying to evict him from this common place…

Unfortunately, so far, these attempts have been fruitless. Because Belarus is an occupied territory. There are enemy Russian troops in Belarus, so it is very, very difficult to get rid of the Belarusian psychopath. Especially since Lukashenka’s regime has spent so much energy and money to build a system of control over women, hiding behind the words of care.

Olga Karach talked about the campaigns of Our House – for example, the “NO Means NO” campaign – and discussed options for cooperation with various feminist organizations in Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Olga evaluated this meeting as one of the most constructive, where participants asked many questions about the situation in Belarus. Many admitted that the real situation with the rights of Belarusian women is still in the invisible zone. Olga expressed her hope that the international feminist community would start raising the issue of the situation of women in Belarus more seriously and would continue the discussion on this issue at a higher level.

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