On Tuesday 8 March, Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko addressed the plenary session of the European Parliament to mark International Women’s Day.
Born in 1960 in Lutsk, Ukraine, Oksana Zabuzhko has published 19 books, including “Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex” and “The Museum of Abandoned Secrets”. This figure of the struggle for democracy had to leave Ukraine two weeks ago.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, affirmed Europe’s unity with Ukrainian women and with those demonstrating in Russia and Belarus against the Russian invasion. Roberta Metsola announced the establishment of a platform to hear the testimonies of these women.
Oksana Zabuzhko pointed out that she had previously witnessed the suffering of women fleeing violence, of those whose achievements were not recognised. She was used, in her writings, to giving a voice to women and to fighting for their rights, but for the first time, she says she now has to stand up for women’s rights to life itself.
She noted that Ukraine’s strength had surprised the West. However, the country survived the Holodomor, “a genocide that some still do not recognise”.
The Ukrainian intellectual recalled that women are targeted in conflicts. Ukrainian women are currently joining the territorial defence forces, managing food distribution and rescuing the injured, she recalled.
For Ms Zabuzhko, we have lost time: we should have reacted earlier and adopted sanctions as soon as the illegal annexation of Crimea and the Donbass in April 2014. This annexation was the first act of the drama we are living.
“Putin did not hide it. We did not take it seriously [...] Trust Putin when he states his ambitions. When he demanded that NATO withdraw from Eastern Europe, he shared with us his dreams of a Soviet-era revival”.
Ms Zabuzhko drew a parallel with Hitler’s 1939 Reichstag speech, when the dictator said he would not wage war on women and children and had instructed his planes to attack only military targets. “Putin uses the same perverse language learned in the KGB”. According to her, Vladimir Putin uses women and children as human shields and targets civilian infrastructure, “he is a terrorist”.
"The lessons of history have not been learned, Vladimir Putin is applying the final solution to the Ukrainian question”, Ms Zabuzhko deplored.
“Ukrainian women are going into exile, fleeing the bombs [...] while their men are staying to fight as long as it takes to protect Europe from a new totalitarianism. Women and men know what they have to do. They will do it, so please don’t be afraid to protect the sky above their heads”.
The leaders of the political groups expressed their support for the Ukrainians. Iratxe Garcia Pérez (S&D, Spain) stressed that feminism has no borders. Frances Fitzgerald (EPP, Ireland) said Ukrainians were going to the front to defend their country, but they were also defending democracy and the Rule of law, European values at the heart of which we find gender equality. Assita Kanko (ECR, Belgium) stressed that as legislators, MEPs have the power to strengthen existing rights and create new ones.
Declaring oneself European must mean being a feminist, said Stéphane Séjourné (Renew Europe, France). (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)