I didn’t want to die
Russia has no domestic violence bill and the draft in motion falls dangerously short
EXCLUSIVE | 3 min read | Trigger warning: domestic violence/depiction of injuries
Last July, Oksana Sadykova’s name was added to the long list of those who couldn’t escape domestic violence in Russia.
The nursery school teacher had been repeatedly beaten by her husband. When she could no longer take it, she reported him to the police and filed for divorce. The police, however, did nothing to help. Her husband was set free and went on to stab Oksana in front of her eight-year-old son.
‘Oksana would be alive now if we had a law on domestic violence,’ says Russian activist Alexandra Mitroshina on her Instagram page. ‘Our state did not protect Oksana, and she died while trying to leave. In our country there are many such Oksanas.’
Russia: the facts
More than 16 millions women suffer from domestic violence there each year
38% of women in Russia experience verbal abuse at home in their lifetimes
20% of women experience physical abuse in their lifetime
10% of victims appeal to the police
Alcohol consumption increases the likelihood of domestic violence in Russian households
Women with an incomplete secondary education are twice as likely to suffer from domestic abuse than their educated counterparts Domestic violence was decriminalised in 2017
Photo: Lara Arbatskaya
Dangerous reality
It’s hard to believe, but in 2017 first battery offences among family members were decriminalised in Russia, with punishment for others softened from jail time to a fine.
Reliable statistics are hard to come by, but Russian newspapers report that between 12,000 and 14,000 women die nationally from domestic violence every year, while Human Rights Watch reported up to 36,000 Russian women and 26,000 children faced violence and abuse every day in 2017.
Women in Russia regularly report they do not feel protected by the police who often don’t treat reports seriously and fail to investigate – while support networks and women’s shelters are few and far between.
Stock image of a young woman in a valley in Magadan, Russia. Photo: Artem Kovalev/Unsplash
The well-ingrained Russian saying if he beats you, it means he loves you speaks volumes about a nation that often blames the victim and does not treat domestic violence as a serious, stand-alone criminal offence.
But a group of young, mostly female activists has taken to social media – and before the pandemic, the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg – to protest against the status quo. Using the hashtag #ЯНеХотелаУмирать [I didn’t want to die] they posted images of themselves with make-up that showed fake blood and bruises.
The photos are part of an online campaign calling on the Russian government to pass a bill that will protect women from abuse in the home.
Three campaigners pose in makeup to depict domestic violence. Photo: Lara Arbatskaya
‘The hashtag also refers to women who are currently serving time for killing a partner in self-defence, meaning I did not want to die, so I defended myself from the aggressor. If there was a law, it would protect such women and would not force them to go to such extreme measures,’ explains Mitroshina.
Public awareness of the issue is on the rise, thanks to high-profile and tragic cases such as that of the Khachaturyan sisters, three young women who are charged with the murder of their abusive father. They face between eight and 20 years in prison for what they say was an act of self-defence after years of abuse.
Yet, jealous husband Dmitriy Grachev, who took his wife Margarita Gracheva into a forest and chopped off her hands with an axe was sentenced to just 14 years in prison.
Inadequate bill
Human rights campaigners, as well as lawyers and progressive policymakers, have now ramped up efforts to bring about a new law that would criminalise domestic violence. A draft bill was finally published in November 2019 but it falls desperately short of what campaigners had hoped for.
‘I am horrified,’ says activist Alena Popova and co-author of an earlier draft. ‘Making it into a law to preserve the family and not to protect the victim. How many more deaths are needed for the legislators to understand that the law should not be a formality, but for the protection of victims?’
The beautiful and colourful Kremlin in Moscow. Photo Artem Beliaikin/Unsplash
Russia remains a conservative nation where traditional family values are strongly promoted by the Russian Orthodox Church, whose ever-more dominant role in politics and society has led to a vocal opposition to the proposed domestic violence bill.
Misinformation proliferates
In late November, the head of the church’s Patriarchal Commission on the Family, Dimitry Smirnov, suggested that a domestic violence law would break up Russian families and make it easier for the authorities to remove children and put them up for adoption, to be ‘brought up by homosexuals.’
Human Rights Watch has urged the Russian government to amend the draft bill to bring it in line with international standards and include key protections for victims. It’s called for a raft of changes including a robust definition of domestic violence that includes physical, sexual, economic and financial abuse.
Police officer taking photos in Bolotnaya Square, Moscow. Photo: Egor Myznik/Unsplash
It also calls for the police to recognise that domestic abuse can happen at the hands of relatives, extended family and former partners, regardless of whether they have shared a home or not.
‘The domestic violence bill is long-awaited, but in its current form largely misses the mark by not addressing several issues crucial to providing effective protection for domestic violence victims,’ said Yulia Gorbunova, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
‘Without providing victims with sufficient protection and recourse measures, the law risks being no more than an empty shell.’
The activists haven’t given up hope, however. ‘We will fight for our version of the law, because many victims of violence write to us that they are with us, that they are also sure that such a law is needed,’ says Popova. ‘We have advocated and will continue to advocate for a working law that will really save and protect victims from domestic violence.’
To add your voice to the change.org petition, click here.
For domestic violence support in Russia, visit Anna Center. In the UK, Refuge are able to provide help. In the USA, you can contact the national Hotline.
Like this article? Please help us commission more like it by donating the cost of a cuppa on Ko-fi. Sharing this article on your social media, and following us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are also a great way to support our independent, self-funded platform.
We encourage debate, but trolls are not welcome. Please read our comments policy before contributing.