​Festival tries to reclaim Russian feminism – but is it radical enough?

After years of operating in the shadows, Russia’s women’s rights activists are pushing back against “traditional values”, and a government that has recently decriminalised some forms of domestic violence.

Fury at Russian move to soften domestic violence law Read more

Last week hundreds of activists marched on city streets to demand equality on International Women’s Day and more than 1,000 attended Fem Fest in Moscow, the first feminist festival of its kind in Russia.

Widely perceived as a western concept, feminism has never had much support in Russia’s patriarchal society – despite the fact that the Soviets were some of the first to give women the vote and legalise abortion. Today, feminists are vilified on social media and in the state-run Russian press.

Politicians openly accuse activists of exaggerating existing problems for “murky goals”, and the media have branded feminism an aggressive movement imposing bizarre lifestyle demands on women.

As a result, says Irina Izotova, curator of Fem Fest, “most women in Russia distance themselves from feminism. For them, feminists are those who stand on the street with signs, protesting.”

With the headline-grabbing protest tactics of Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian group Femen now focusing their efforts elsewhere – Pussy Riot moved on to advocating for political prisoners and Femen is mostly active in Europe – speakers at the festival focused on the day-to-day issues Russian women face.

Talks addressed current problems with domestic violence, for which the punishment has just been downgraded despite 35,899 cases being reported in 2015; the disturbing trend of rape victims being blamed for provoking their attackers; and the fact that police dismiss four out of five rape reports.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Punk group and political activists Pussy Riot in 2014. Photograph: Morry Gash/AP

There was a lecture on the gender pay gap, which even state officials admit is at 27%. Others talked about the history of feminism in Russia and how sexually active women are regarded by society as having loose morals.

But division was growing in the ranks as the festival approached, with some feminists boycotting the event. In an open letter to the organisers, radical feminist groups and activists accused Fem Fest of “depoliticising” feminism, making it too “glamorous” and soft.

“The festival’s programme leaves out the agenda that addresses the most painful issues of Russian life … and makes feminism just a fancy trinket,” the open letter on the Colta culture news website read.

The letter was also critical of Fem Fest for ignoring politically sensitive issues such as forced marriage and honour killings in the North Caucasus.

A Photoshop stunt on International Women’s Day also caused debate after it emerged that a banner reading “feminism [is] a national cause” on the Kremlin had been faked. Some accused those involved of undermining joint efforts to get society to take feminists seriously.

“Whatever feminists do [in Russia], it is always regarded as harming feminism,” said Leda Garina, one of the organisers of the stunt, adding that their objective was to attract more attention to the cause.

But some see these schisms as encouraging. “By participating in these discussions, society is reassessing the role of women and starting to acknowledge the problems,” argued the women’s rights advocate Alyona Popova.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A banner reading ‘Men have been in power for 200 years. Down with it!’ outside the Kremlin on International Women’s Day. Another, faked image sparked a row. Photograph: TASS/Getty Images

Kirill Martynov, a philosophy professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, echoed her sentiment. Speaking at the festival, he said: “Feminism is at the top of the agenda in Russia. It’s finally out there in society,” describing the clashes as “growing pains”.

Others warned that infighting could overshadow the real fight for laws and services that protect women.

“We still don’t have proper domestic violence legislation. We lack anti-discrimination laws that could help fight discrimination against women in courts and not just on paper,” said Yuliya Antonova, a women’s rights lawyer with the NGO Russia Justice Initiative. “There are too few crisis centres for women in trouble.”

A lack of information is one of the most pressing feminist issues in Russia today, adds Antonova, and women need to know how they can protect themselves.

The government seems at least to be paying lip service to the issue, too. On International Women’s Day, Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, outlined ambitious goals to reduce the gender pay gap, prevent violence and ensure proper healthcare for women.

But Popova warned that this could be just a strategy to win the female vote in the run-up to the presidential election. After 2018, “they might as well say that they have analysed the situation, and it isn’t so bad, so no additional steps need to be taken,” she says, adding that now is not the time for women’s rights activists to take their eye off the ball.