Feminists call on the Ukrainian authorities to respect the rights of women and equalize their rights with men, limiting their travel abroad.
“We were silent for a whole year and endured this injustice. Women’s rights are again infringed. Enough! We say enough, stop this inequality and ban women from leaving the country, as you did for men. Women can be drafted into the army in the same way as men, but they can still leave the country. This is unacceptable.”
Roksolana Pereyko, leader of the “Feminists for Women’s Rights” movement.
Opportunity to leave Ukraine on equal terms
Recently, a new movement has appeared in Ukraine – “Feminists for Women’s Rights”. A group of activists calls on the Ukrainian authorities to respect the rights of women and equalize their rights with men. One of their new proposals is to ban by law the travel of women abroad, as was done with men on the very first day of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
According to representatives of the movement, such a restriction is necessary not only to protect the Motherland [Ukraine] from Russian aggression, which has been going on for more than a year, but also to protect women from possible exploitation and discrimination in other countries. “We see that many women go abroad in search of work and a better life. Men are deprived of such a right. It is necessary either to give the same opportunity to men or to take away this right from women. And we, true Ukrainian feminists, being patriots of our homeland, insist on the restriction for all adults: men, women, transgenders and other genders, no matter who they identify themselves with, a cactus, an ostrich or a pink penguin,” says one of the representatives of the movement.
Criticism of the protests
At the same time, this proposal caused outrage among many people in Ukraine, including women. “I don’t want someone to decide for me when I can travel abroad and where I can go,” says Natalia, a resident of Kyiv. But quoting Natalya from Kyiv, any man for whom the State has already decided that he is not allowed to leave can say exactly the same thing.
“We understand that these are difficult times in the country, and men also need to have the right to move freely, but we believe that the rights of women should not be forgotten in this situation. And since men cannot leave, then women too. This is equality”, – said the representative of the feminist movement. “We demand the same treatment for ourselves as for men. Our goal is to protect the rights and dignity of women in Ukraine.”
Why were feminists silent for a year?
When asked why they were silent for a year, and only now came out to protest, the representatives of the movement noted that they had come to a boiling point and they could no longer be silent. Moreover, this year their ranks have been replenished with male feminists and transgender feminists who also feel discrimination and advocate for equality. “Finally today our voices were heard, the media paid attention to us and we received support in society. We hope that the authorities will pay attention to our demands and give us the rights that we deserve,” says Yaroslava, a protester with a banner ‘Long Live Equality!’ in hand.
Or maybe they were silent because the feminist movement prefers not to notice issues that it considers beneficial for itself? An example of such a question would be “women’s quota”. This is a situation where a woman wants to hold a high position in a company, but due to her personal qualities and professional skills, she is not ready for such work. Such an approach can not only affect the company’s employees, but is also a kind of discrimination against men, since the choice for a position is not based on professional qualities, but on a gender basis.
Anyway, at the moment, the feminists’ proposal to limit women’s travel abroad has caused controversy in Ukrainian society. However, despite this, the issues of equality and protection of women’s rights remain important and require further discussion and action by the authorities.
