Okategoriserade The Pussy Riot Trial: Quotes from Court Verdict Concerning Feminism and Contemporary Art

Comments on Pussy Riot: Reflections on Receptions   “Feminism is not crime but…” [1] The court cannot agree to the arguments […]

Published on balticworlds.com on December 20, 2012

Comments on Pussy Riot: Reflections on Receptions 

 “Feminism is not crime but…” [1]

The court cannot agree to the arguments of the defense concerning the absence in the actions of the accused of the motives of religious hatred and enmity, hatred towards a social group. The motive of religious enmity the court sees in the following: the accused position themselves as supporters of feminism, i.e. the movement for equal rights for women. In the Russian Federation, the equality of rights is proclaimed in Article 19 of the Constitution,the state guaranteeing the equality of man’s rights and freedoms independent of sex, race, ethnicity, language, origin, property and official status, place of residence, religion, convictions, membership in public organizations or other circumstances. … Men and women have equal rights and freedoms and equal opportunities for their realization. At present, persons who rank themselves among the feminist movement fight for sexual equality in political, family, and sexual relations. Belonging to feminism in the Russian Federation is not a crime nor breaks the law. A number of religions, such as Russian orthodox Christianity, Catholicism and Islam have a religious dogmatic foundation that is incompatible with feminist ideas. And even though feminism is not a religious teaching its representatives invade such social spheres as moral norms, appropriateness, family relations, sexual relations including non-traditional ones, that historically are based on religious worldviews. In today’s world, relations between different nations and ethnicities, between confessions must be based on the principles of mutual respect and equality, the idea of the supremacy of the ideology of one religious social group and, respectively, that of the inferiority and unacceptability of another gives rise to mutual enmity and hatred, as well as interpersonal conflict.

Irina Sandomirskaja