"Political Prison"

Political prisoner Polina Sharenda-Panasyuk.

Illustration from the "Politvyazinka" project

The artistic project dedicated to Belarusian political prisoners was created by journalist Yevgeniya Dougaya and artist Anna Tatur.

Authors remind us of the terrible things through delicate portraits of women in prison.

According to Yevgenia and Anna, this is done to "make visible our women in the repressive apparatus of the self-proclaimed authorities of Belarus."

More than a thousand subscribers have already signed up for the project.

75 stories of Belarusian women who are in prison for their civil stance have already been published.

You can familiarize yourself with the activity of the initiative under the link.

At the moment, the project works on a voluntary basis and needs support.

There are plans to organize an exhibition of the project and publish a book.

"visible"

The project of the Belarusian PEN Center about Belarusian women who should be known.

Within the framework of the project, the authors talk about "Belarusian women who, with their talents, courage and work, have earned the right to be called great.

Despite living and growing up in a society where achievement is a male prerogative, they managed to show by their example that gender does not predetermine a person's destiny, unlike social stereotypes and attitudes."

The authors of the project offer to join a special page on Instagram to learn more about great Belarusian women — Natalya Arsenieva, Larisa Geniyush, Zoska Veras, Emilia Pliater, Solyameya Rusetskaya and others.

Girl power Belarus

The Girl Power Belarus initiative was created back in August 2020 during the Belarusian protests, brutal violence by security forces against women, and fruitfully continued its work in 2022.

"The Belarusian revolution has a female face in many respects.

It was these women that inspired us to create our channel.

All this time we wrote about our unimaginable, strong and brave Belarusian women.

We write about women, support women's rights, fight against gender discrimination.

Women should not have fewer political, economic and civil rights simply because they are women, and their rights should be implemented in practice," the authors of the initiative write.

The initiative works on a volunteer basis, but it also needs help.

— https://t.

me/girlspowerblr

— https://www.

instagram.

com/girls.

power.

belarus/

"Her Expertise"

A flash mob in which women talk about their professional problems and successes.

The above-mentioned initiative Girl power Belarus offered to share their experience under the hashtag #яеекспертиза.

As part of the flash mob, many Belarusians told how they had to face problems in representation or infringement of rights in the professional sphere.

"Our team is saddened to observe how many female experts do not want to be public because of the atmosphere in society, which does not allow them to feel freedom of expression.

Are there really so few female experts?

Maybe we can prove the opposite?"

- this is how the Girl Power Belarus team explained the launch of the flash mob.

"Anthology of female poets.

Chosen by Valjean Mort"

Anthology of poets.

Chosen by Valgina Mort, Pflewmbaum 2022

A new book by the women's publishing initiative "Pfluvmbaum".

The anthology collected poems of the 21st century by 63 Belarusian poets of different ages, experience and languages.

As the poet Valjean Mort writes in the preface, “this is why I love anthologies: not a separate product for literary marketing, but a chorus of voices, a space for the multitude;

books in which difference and otherness are gathered together.

That is why it is impossible to completely love or dislike them.

These are books for searching: own, needed at the moment, new, different.

My approach to the selection of texts was to prepare a space of texts for your fruitful search.'

#SupportWomen.

Assistance to women in Ukraine who suffered from violence

The initiative of Belarusian feminists to help women in Ukraine who suffered abuse and violence during the war.

More than 10,000 euros were collected for medicines (contraceptives, prescription drugs, Rape kit), which were sent to Ukraine, as well as for help and rehabilitation of women who survived violence in Ukraine.

Women in Tech.

A project that helps women enter IT

Conference participants of the Women in Tech project

In 2022, the Women in Tech project was launched, which helps women enter the IT field and make a career.

Now more than 500 participants from Belarus, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Germany, the USA and other countries are studying in the programs of the project.

According to project manager Anna Samarska, the idea came when it became clear that infrastructure solutions would be needed for Belarus, especially for women: "The

idea was born within the European Humanities University to create a project that would help girls and women who would like to work in IT.

Or for those who are already working, strengthen their positions and find new career opportunities.

The idea was financially supported by the European Union."

Fem-writing laboratory "Stretching" and a collection of texts by Belarusian women based on its results

The collection "Stretching" is the result of a summer laboratory of femme writing, dedicated to protest and emigrant trauma.

The laboratory worked from June to August 2022.

"Once a week we gathered together with invited Belarusian poets and writers to find ways to work with the topic of traumatic experience.

We read the texts, discussed them, tried various writing tools in order to voice the themes and experiences that were important to us.

We also created a Telegram group for communication between participants, where they shared useful materials and facilitated work on texts.

To support the group, we offered individual confidential and anonymous consultations with a psychologist," the authors of the project say.

"This is Belarusian"

An Instagram project in which more than 50 active Belarusian women took part, who talk about themselves and what a Belarusian woman is.

Here are some examples:

• "Belarusian is an empathetic, very strong woman.

  She knows what she wants and what she strives for, she has a plan and an understanding of what is important to her.

  I think she is strongly connected with Belarus - the one that echoes in her heart;

  she is devoted to her own values ​​and stands for them to the last."

• "Belarus is an infinite power.

  Belarusian means faith, care and equality.

  Belarusian is about boundless support, it's about the strongest friendship, it's about the closest and most precious thing you can have.

  Being Belarusian is an inspiration."

Dictionary of Belarusian women.

Who should be followed

Another inspiring project of the Girl power Belarus initiative.

This is a dictionary of famous Belarusian women.

It contains stories about Marina Adamovich, Svyatlana Aleksievich, Ekaterina Andreeva, Nina Baginskaya, Nastya Dashkevich, Natalia Dulina, Maria Kalesnikova, Ivonka Survila and many other Belarusian women.

"Without a doubt, there are many more wonderful Belarusian women, but we have chosen those whose activities and affairs should be followed immediately," the authors of the dictionary note.

"Many of them will be almost physically painful to read - at least half of this dictionary is now behind bars in difficult conditions and information isolation.

Nevertheless, we do not distinguish categories, we do not separate the "free" from the "prisoners".

We believe that no one will break the free spirit of Belarusian women and they will get out of prison sooner than we can dream.

We also believe that many of these surnames (if not all) will be included in the textbook on the recent history of Belarus, which will be distributed in schools to our children and grandchildren," the authors of the dictionary write.

Women's business initiatives in Warsaw

The project "Women's Pro Women's Club in Warsaw" focuses on the self-realization of women in various directions.

"The goal of our club is to help and support each participant in all her endeavors from all possible angles.

That's why we offer different topics for meetings," says the club's founder Maria Moroz.

Research on the spread of domestic violence among Belarusian women over the past 12 months

It was made by Victoria Lauryniuk, a doctoral student in feminist and gender studies.

In an interview with Svaboda, the researcher explained what type of violence Belarusians suffer the most in Belarus and abroad, which groups of women are most vulnerable to various types of violence, and what victims of violence should do in the current situation.

Gender in the age of change

An educational and support course for Belarusian women, during which experts tell how "feminism and gender theory help to find landmarks in the current reality and define principles for establishing solidarity and supportive relationships."

During the interactive classes, lecturers Olga Shparaga, Alena Ogarelisheva, and Yulia Mickevich together with the course participants discuss such concepts as solidarity, care and human dignity from a gender, philosophical and legal point of view.

The course offers interactive activities in gender theory, including discussions and debates, support groups, master classes and informal offline parties.

As the authors of the course note, it "suits everyone who wants to discover something new and discuss what hurts and worries them.

We emphasize live communication, welcome the personal contribution of the participants and value them for their ideas, experience and diversity of views."

Youtube channel "Woman Wants"

The channel was created and run by journalists Ekaterina Pytleva and Sasha Romanova.

This is how the authors explain the main idea of ​​the project:

"What does a woman want?

We answer this question in the affirmative.

A woman wants.

Moreover, she always knows what she wants.

We talk about how to achieve this, what challenges a modern woman faces and how to overcome them in our project.

Inspirational stories of women and discussions on topics important to all of us every week on this channel."

The channel was created a few months ago and has 840 subscribers.

10 videos have already been released.

Topics include "Money in a woman's life / Breadwinner, dependent or independent", "Sex during war", "Alcohol in a woman's life", "How to love your body" and others.

Women are not ashamed

A project for women on Instagram about women's health.

There are many tips from gynecologists and other doctors, useful programs and bots about women's health.

• Anna Sous

  Journalist of Radio Svaboda

  Editor of the "Only women" community on Facebook 

  sousa@rferl.org

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