Countries in Europe and beyond lurch towards the far right, which usually goes hand in hand with a masculinist ideology which promotes male supremacy. Some countries are worse than others, namely those which have not signed up to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Let us take the example of Russia, whose leader Nigel Farage admires.
Putin has a hypermasculine vision of Russia, to the point of decriminalising domestic violence against women in 2021. Women in Russia have often ventured out into the streets in large numbers to protest about domestic violence, for example in St. Petersburg in 2019. Nowadays, membership of feminist movements is classed as suspicious.
Daria Serenko, founder of feminist anti-war movement
Putin has named prominent poet and writer, Daria Serenko; who founded the feminist anti-war resistance movement days after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine; a threat to the nation. He had Serenko imprisoned, banned her books, and confiscated her passport.
Serenko sought sanctuary in Georgia in March 2022 and hopes to find asylum in Europe. Her resistance group was labelled as an “undesirable organization.” The punishment for membership of this is now six years in prison. She continues to support many other feminist groups from exile, but no feminist group dare be associated with her anti-war movement.
Nearly every week, the Russian feminist movement posts messages to its channel on Telegram about the murder of Russian women by their husbands or boyfriends who act in the knowledge they will not face any consequences or punishment. Putin routinely pardons criminals who agree to fight on the front lines in Ukraine. In February this year, a Russian man stabbed his wife out of jealousy in front of her mother and five-year-old daughter in Achinsk, Siberia. He requested a pardon in exchange for his army service on the front.
Safety of women and protection given by the ECHR
Russia is not a country which stands high in the ranks of women’s safety. It is one of the worst countries when it comes to protection of women from violence, domestic and sexual. Russia is not a member of the ECHR, which ensures that citizens may lay claim to human rights and the right to protest.
Many like Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Kemi Badenoch argue fervently for Britain’s withdrawal from the ECHR. They claim it prevents us from controlling our borders and prevents deportation of asylum seekers, who they claim are a threat to our safety and a drain to our economy. We are small steps away from becoming a clone of Trump’s USA should any of these politicians gain power.
Serenko herself warns about parallels between Russia and the US, noting how Trump’s government is making life less safe for American victims of domestic violence:
“I want to stretch my hands to you across the oceans so we can know we are part of the same resistance […] As a person from a dictatorship, I can only tell you this: Don’t be afraid of becoming an alarmist – the dictatorship develops slowly, but at some point, you find yourself in a boiling pot.”
Membership of the ECHR fosters gender equality principles and guarantees that a government will not put women’s rights on a bonfire. Not only does it protect women against gender-based violence, Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) and Article 8 (right to private and family life) are often invoked in cases which concern women’s rights.
Be careful what you wish for and vote for….
Women in the UK enjoy a relatively high level of safety and legal protections brought about by our membership of the ECHR. Arguably, women’s rights and workers’ rights in the UK improved under pressure from Europe, not only the protests of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
The ECHR’s focus on women’s rights encourages greater scrutiny of laws and practices that may discriminate against women.
Promises made by those seeking to take office in 2029 must be viewed against their advantages and disadvantages. The devil is in the detail. Tax free earnings up to £20,000 pale into insignificance if those who rule would readily compromise our safety. Scrapping the 2-child cap on child benefit may sound attractive, but it will come at a high cost elsewhere. The very important rights which help women defend themselves and their families without being forced into silence are priceless.
