“Struggle and Freedom are female words” was the slogan of the march in support of the Belarusian women and the Belarusian revolution of the diaspora in Germany that took place the other day. More than 100 activists gathered on Karl Marx Alley to march on Friedrichshain district of Berlin on March 8.
The organizers reminded on their Facebook page that “March 8 is not a day of gifts and flowers, but a day of equal rights for women. In Belarus, women have been fighting for freedom for themselves and others for many months, they have become the face and conscience of the revolution.
At the rally, the protesters remembered politicians – Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her comrades-in-arms, as well as activists of street protests, such as Nina Bahinskaya.
The participants of the march carried placards with the names of women political prisoners: politician Maryia Kalesnikava, member of the Coordinating Council Alana Hebremariam, human rights activist Marfa Rabkova, journalists Darya Chultsova, Katsyaryna Andreeva and Ksenia Lutskina.
Maryia, an architect and young mother, joined the action with her daughter in the stroller. She says she participates because she follows the political news from her homeland. She recalls that after the elections “women were carrying flowers, trying to give them to the riot police, believing that they would not touch women. But we saw that the dictatorship, like the patriarchy, does not spare anyone.
Senior woman Vanessa Meckler holds a banner “Free Belarus” and says that she is interested in Belarus because she once actively helped organize treatment for children after Charnobyl. Vanessa says, “Women are the foundation of everything. I know that Belarusians are strong and smart. I want them to know that we Germans are rooting for them!”
The action of Belarusian women in Berlin was one of a large number of events that took place in the German capital on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Despite the quarantine measures in Germany, representatives of trade unions, women’s organizations and various informal feminist groups considered it important to gather for a march and rally on this day in Berlin.
Jeanna Krömer, belsat.eu
