"I Saw What Strong Women We Have in Belarus!"

• 22.10.2020, 11:08

Here are three portraits of participants in Belarusian protests.

It happened on August 12, when the first difficult post-election days ended. In the country, people finally got the Internet back. We all saw and read about what was happening, and we were at a loss: what will happen next? Suddenly the course of the protests changed - girls in white took to the street. They did not use violence; they hugged young guys with their shields down and gave them flowers. And after a couple of weeks, brutal detentions became fashionable again, and many women, who became the nucleus of the "flower" protest, got detained for a day. Participants of these protests talk about three things: strength, courage, and hope that we will not have to divide Belarusians into "us" and "foes," writes onliner.by.

Volha, psychologist: "The peculiarity of our protest is that everyone takes responsibility. People in the vertical of power cannot understand this"

We meet with Volha on 43 Independence Avenue. She is a little late: she says she has just brought the youngest of the children into the kindergarten and sorted out the court documents (briefly about the typical everyday life of a Belarusian woman). And then she begins to explain: here, at the tables of the cafe, where visitors are now quietly dining, during one of the women's marches, she was detained by two security officials. What did she do? She started giving them flowers. When the woman was taken to the bus, her mother remained on the grass - she cried and asked her daughter to be released. The result of this scene was quite predictable: the woman was also detained and taken to Zhodzina. Volha herself tells the details.

- Participation in the rally was my deliberate decision; I understood what the consequences could be. The man who was detaining me, I asked only one question: "Will you beat me?" I worked quite a lot with people who were in Akrestsina Street in the early days of the protests, and therefore, I understand that their bruises are not made up stories. All this was done by our Belarusian guys, with whom we live in the same house and go to the same gym. But the young man only answered me: "Watch the Internet more," and took me to the bus. I remember that at that moment, the women began to shout to the men: "Go away, they will beat you." And they stayed where they were and answered: "Who will we be if we leave?"

I had flowers in my hands; after the arrest, they could have been under my feet, so I started distributing them to the security forces. Someone threw them away, and someone took them with them - I saw that they were lying on the seat in the bus. Then it seemed to me that nothing human is alien to these people.

But then I learned about the detention of my relatives. Mom was with me at the rally - she was sitting on the grass in front of the bus and asked to let me go. I saw the moment of her detention only when I was released. The video shows how a girl working for BT approached her. She tried to interview her, but my mother refused. After that, four security officials grabbed her and took her to the bus.

I myself was from Saturday to Monday at the Central Inspection Center on Akrestsina Street. I was surprised at the big problems with the sanitary conditions. It is not possible to ask for a rag to clean the cell. The answer was: "Not allowed." There's not even a brush to clean the toilet. Now, due to the epidemic situation, the days of receiving care packages have been reduced to one. Imagine that people who go there on Sunday are left without hygiene products until Thursday. They don't even have toilet paper. And they will be really lucky if one of their neighbors has it.

It was unbearably painful to deal with such cruelty. These appalling conditions in the detention center and the violence of the security forces provoked women's "walks." Thus, women have shown that they have their place in society. And I am pleasantly surprised at how our men cope with this: the entire patriarchal order shouts that they should put a woman under lock and key. You know, one worker in Akrestsina Street told me so: "But my wife is sitting at home!" Well, no one put me anywhere. This is the peculiarity of our protest: everyone takes responsibility and does what he can. But those in the vertical of power cannot understand this: they are accustomed to being allowed to act only after an order.

Alena, programmer: "It is unlikely that the guys from the AMAP can openly disobey orders, but they certainly are capable of not being "excellent students" at the same time."

Elena, 52, a mother of three, was detained at the Komarouski market during one of the women's rallies. Actually, here we begin the conversation about how she was grabbed by the arms and legs by four men in olive and dragged into the paddy wagon. In the photo of the photographer Maksim Tarnalitski, this moment was captured as follows.

Alena holds a yellow flower in her hands. She says that she began to participate in women's actions from the very beginning and tells us about the reasons.

"I had several reasons for going out into the street: the election results, the harsh reaction of the security officials to the protests and stories of people who visited Akrestsina Street. I noticed that women of my age are not detained - mostly girls were taken to the paddy wagons. And as soon as I got bold, it was my turn. One Saturday, I was walking to our meeting place, and four men in uniform were already running towards me. The detention was not harsh, but I was outraged by the process itself: unknown persons in masks did not show me any identification and said: "Let's go." I refused to go to the car with them and sat on the ground, so they grabbed my arms and legs and dragged me. It was two hundred meters to the paddy wagon, so they had to work hard. At that moment, I thought of only one thing: I hoped that while they were messing with me, several girls would have time to escape and remain free.

When we went to Akrestsina Street, I tried to talk to the security forces. I noticed that I myself am beginning to feel human feelings for them: in personal communication, they are not rude. I explained that I was not some idiot, but they were trying to convince me otherwise. In the end, they simply had nothing to say to my arguments. So we got a kind of conversation. I realized that I do not have the strength to demand something from them, especially to ask them to quit. They are hostages of a situation too, in which leaving the organs is akin to an act of heroism. It seems to me that after the arrest, I even had a hope that the police is not such a monolithic system as we used to imagine it. It is unlikely that the guys from the AMAP can openly disobey orders, but they certainly are capable of not being "excellent students" at the same time.

On the other hand, when I got to Akrestsina Street, I was surprised by the behavior of the guards. All of them were courteous, and when asked what was happening here on August 9, they answered: "we don't beat anyone here." There were other employees - they stood in balaclavas, were rude, and tried to intimidate us. They did not have the command to use violence, but they tried to give the impression that it could happen any minute.

What conclusions did I draw after the protests? I was probably surprised to find that when you decide to argue with the state, the state turns out to be completely wrong. Therefore, our family made a decision: if nothing changes in Belarus, we will have to leave. At my age, with my memory, it is scary to think that I will have to learn a new language. But we are left with two options: to take risks and fight against this lawlessness - or to try to save our life and family.

Sonya, psychologist and actress: "Until this summer, many believed that a woman was weak, she should sit at home and cook borscht"

29-year-old Sonya got into the lens of Aliaksandr Ruzhechka during a dance action. That evening, the girls planned to make a protest playlist, come to Gorky Park, and dance. It so happened that almost immediately after the start of the "movement," a blue bead drove up to them - about ten people in uniform got out of it and dispersed a small crowd. However, Sonya was not scared - she returned to the gathering place and began to dance right in front of the security forces' car.

- I saw an announcement of a dance campaign on the Internet, it interested me. As a result, very few of us gathered, about six or seven - there were many more correspondents and security officials. And then the guys in the olive opened the bus doors, ran out, and began to disperse us. When a crowd of men in uniform is running after several girls, this whole situation seemed to me absurd and funny. I waited for them to drive and then started dancing. Of course, I was scared, but in recent months Belarusians have got used to constantly overstepping their fear.

Probably, then I felt that they were trying to make me a little person against whom force could be applied - and he would disappear. I realized that I could not walk the streets and pretend that nothing was happening around. For a long time, I thought that something was wrong with me. But it turned out that there are many people in Belarus with the same emotions and opinions.

In addition, I saw what strong women we have in Belarus. They are threatened to take their children away, detained, and humiliated, but they still go ahead. I think until this summer, many in our society believed that a woman was weak, she should sit at home and cook borscht. Actually, that's why AMAP detained the girls in a much more loyal manner. But then these guys faced reality: yes, we really turned out to be strong and independent.

Now I think a lot about the actions of the security officials, trying to find some kind of logic in them. More often, I understand that we are all one country and one nation. We just grew up in different conditions and were brought up in different institutions. I think everyone has the right to forgiveness, and I probably just want to believe that a conversation between us is possible.