The Russian activist fighting against domestic violence.
By Anna Bourgogne
With a journalism and law degree in hand, Russian social and political activist Alena Popova fights to end domestic violence. She is a women’s rights activist who advocates for the implementation of an anti domestic violence law in Russia. Her actions inspire me to act.
She felt a call to action when she witnessed the violent beating of her friend, who had for only explanation “perhaps this was all my fault”, to excuse her boyfriend’s brutal behavior (Together For Girls, 2017).
Her journalism background helps her in her various social media awareness campaigns to denounce domestic violence (InterviewHer, 2020). One of her social media awareness campaigns particularly noteworthy: she photographed herself having written on her arm “#Янехотелаумирать” which translates to “#Ididn’twanttodie”. With this hashtag, she denounces the silencing of domestic abuse victims who were too scared for their life to speak up. Many women replicated the picture and shared it on social media, pushing for the first law that would punish domestic violence in Russia (Shah & Kyriukhina, 2019).
Popova also posts photographs of staged scenes of domestic violence, such as the one below, which shows that women cannot speak up, as if their mouths were taped. What really stands out in her work is that she doesn’t only talk about domestic violence, she shows it through staged pictures. It gets through to the audience much more and really encourages action.
In addition to her fight for women’s rights, Alena Popova is the founder of Ethic and Tech, an organization for technological privacy and the limitation of surveillance, another area of human rights’ activism she takes interest in.
Why is she inspiring? Because, she acted when she could have just looked away. From one single event, she decided to do her part to fight against domestic violence. She did not start with the notoriety she has today. There is a very high chance that she lost many friends who did not approve of her ideas. She very probably fought for her ideas on her own for some time, but she kept doing her part.
While it is true that there are laws to protect individuals against domestic violence in Canada, unfortunately, it does not mean that it prevents it. Domestic violence is a universal issue. Legislation might make it more punishable in certain places, but it has no country, color, or age.
For more information about how Popova’s cause hits home in our city, Katrina, our ethics manager wrote a great post on domestic violence in Calgary, which explores this issue in a local context.
The Women’s Centre has many resources to help and inform women about domestic violence. They also offer free legal advice to victims of domestic violence. I highly recommend taking a look at their website, it might be helpful to you, or someone you know.
References
BBC.com. (2019, July 23). [Alena Popova] [Photograph]. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-49081045
InterviewHer. (2020). Alena Popova. Retrieved from https://interview-her.com/speaker/alena-popova/
Popova, A. [@alenapopova]. (2019, December 9). Выкладываем свой текст закона о профилактике домашнего насилия: хватит манипуляций, лжи и запугивания родителей! [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B52rVTgIG9C/
Together for Girls. (2017). [Alena Popova] [Photograph]. https://www.togetherforgirls.org/alena-popova/
Together For Girls. (2017). Alena Popova. Retrieved from https://www.togetherforgirls.org/alena-popova/
Shah, D & Kiryukhina, Y. (2019, July 23). ‘I didn’t want to die’: Why are Russians using bloody make-up to tackle domestic abuse?. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-49081045
YYC for Women 