In an innovative way to demand change
Belarusian women wave flowers in the face of riot police
Women give flowers to a police officer. From the source
Women in Minsk demonstrate in the street. From the source
Belarusian women hold flowers in protest against Lukashenko's victory in the presidential election. From the source
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After the police in Belarus beat protesters, women took to the streets carrying flowers to demand change, and the first group of them appeared on Wednesday, representing a few hundred brave souls, dressed in white, and carrying bouquets of flowers, in a strong but calm response to the horrific violence Thousands of Belarusian men who protested against the victory of the Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, were exposed to a new term in elections that his opponents claimed were rigged.
By the next afternoon, groups of women waving flowers had spread everywhere in the country, wandering along the wide roads in central Minsk smiling, and insistently demanding political change. “We are here to show solidarity with all our men who have been beaten and abused,” said Tatiana, a 31-year-old waitress, who was at the front of a queue of about 1,000 women carrying flowers. She and her friend were holding a white flag, a sign of their desire to distance themselves from violence. .
The uprising of women
On Friday evening, thousands of demonstrators poured into the Belarusian parliament, which could set the scene for a new confrontation with riot police. With the demand for change intensifying, and protests reaching the factories that are the pride of Lukashenko's economy, this ruler ended his week clinging to power in defiance of a broader coalition of opponents of his rule, but from the start this was an uprising inspired and led by women against him.
After many presidential candidates were arrested or fled, in the run-up to the vote, the wife of one of the candidates, Svetlana Tikanovskaya, entered the presidential race, along with two other women, and the trio presented a simple program that inspired many Belarusians: free and fair elections.
Lukashenko misread the mood of the country he led for 26 years, mocked Tikanovskaya, and suggested that she focus on cooking dinner for her children. These sarcastic phrases made people admire Tikanovskaya's design more. “The three of us were able to confirm that we bear our responsibility for what is happening in the future of Belarus,” says Maria Kolesnikova, the only one of the three female candidates who remained in Belarus, in an interview in central Minsk. “The West will not help us, and Russia will not help us either, we can. Just helping ourselves, our feminine faces have become a signal to all women - and to men as well - that everyone has to take responsibility. ”
Authorities responded to the protest with some of the most horrific police violence in modern European history. On Sunday and Monday evenings, riot police deployed across Minsk, as if they were playing a computer game, arresting anyone wearing protest tapes, and anyone cheering, and arresting many bystanders Random people.
Brutal violence
Everyone who was arrested was subjected to brutal violence, among them a 47-year-old man, who was on his way to his home, when he was arrested randomly, was subjected to prolonged beatings by the police, and was forced to lie on his face on the ground. Also there is the 51-year-old journalist in Grodno, who shouted "I am a journalist" and waved his card in the air, but was kicked in the face to lose four teeth, and then he was arrested and fined, also including a man who appeared on a video tape while he was pulled away before Riot police, shouting and disbelieving what happened, “Vote for Lukashenko!” Nearly 6,700 others have been arrested for more than four nights this week.
In a scene that reflects pages from a novel by Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, relatives wait outside for information about the whereabouts of their missing children, brothers, husbands, or wives, a long queue appears in front of a gray metal door with a small opening that opens briefly every few hours, when it opens Waiters rush to provide the names of the missing and then sit down.
In the daytime, armed men patrol the rooftops, appearing to come into contact with observers in civilian clothes disguised as crowds of weary relatives. At night, some heard sad cries of pain from behind the walls, and from time to time ambulances arrived to pick up those whose injuries had become critical from the severity of the beatings. Judges arrive in minibuses for show trials inside the prison, where many detainees said they were forced to sign papers with fabricated information about where, when, and how they were being held.
By Wednesday morning, the police had managed to crush the protest decisively. And the Internet, which came to a halt across the country, was connected soon after the vote, a sign that the authorities felt they were in control of the situation again. The picture drawn by opposition social media channels of a country on the verge of a successful revolution seemed completely detached from reality when life began to return to normal through Lukashenko State TV.
But as prisoners began to be released, thousands shared video clips of their injuries, and disgusted testimonies on messaging apps, and the mood changed again as the country began to estimate the scale of the violations.
Marina, the 28-year-old musician, who participated in the initial women's rally on Wednesday, says that before this year she was not interested in politics, but rather was living her own life in parallel with the repressive state, yet Tikanovskaya's campaign encouraged her and was disgusted by Lukashenko's reaction. The violent, "Now when I see his face, I cannot even explain how I feel about him. It is something worse than hate, as if there is something black inside of me."
As the trauma turned into a catharsis, on Thursday and Friday Minsk looked like a carnival, as large groups of women marched through the streets, cars started blowing their horns in support of the growing groups of protesters, riot police backed down and the authorities launched a belated strategy for a half-hearted reconciliation.
Tikanovskaya may be out of the country now, but her video appeal on Friday, in which she called for protests over the weekend, combined with the growing determination among the protesters and the increasing number of striking factories, suggests that the coming days will be crucial for Lukashenko.
There was a complete lack of support for Lukashenko, with none of the youth groups waving flags or the angry grandmothers that presidents in Russia and Ukraine have been rallying in recent years, in attempts to show the depth of their support for the anti-protest movements. Lukashenko appears to control little except for the police and army.
Kolesnikova, who remained in Minsk despite a series of threats and the arrest of several colleagues, refused to talk about things turning violent. “I don’t think there should be a revolution, the only person who uses phrases like revolution is the current president,” she went on Wednesday. : "We always only talked about peaceful methods of protest."
But the events in Minsk were moving quickly, as the crowds went out on Friday evening in the largest demonstration so far, the next demonstration may be the largest in the country's history, no one really believes in the possibility of dialogue with Lukashenko, and the most likely possibilities are a bloody campaign or a sudden fall of the regime.
After many presidential candidates were arrested or fled, in the run-up to the vote, the wife of one of the candidates, Svetlana Tikanovskaya, entered the presidential race, along with two other women, and the trio presented a simple program that inspired many Belarusians: free and fair elections.
In a scene that reflects pages from a novel by Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, relatives wait outside for information about the whereabouts of their missing children, brothers, husbands or wives.