Original Material
ATHENA TAKES ON STEREOTYPES
by Nina Kurasova, President of Rostov regional NGO
"Athena Information Resource Center", Rostov-on-the Don
The "Athena Information Resource Center " began in 1996 as a group of Rostov women (journalists, lawyers, psychologists), and in 1998, it became a legal entity.
Athena's work has several areas of focus: -- acting as a resource center for the women's movement of the Rostov region (with more than 30 kinds of consultation services used by more than 40 NGOs); -- providing psychological counseling and legal rights support for women in crisis situations, particularly for victims of domestic violence (around 1000 women per year turn to the center for help); -- providing educational programs on human rights and women's rights for representatives of professional organizations (social workers, psychologists, mediators); -- sustaining the work of the Independent Women's Information Agency (production and publication in the press of articles about human rights and women's rights, under the rubric of the "Athena Information Resource Center"; maintaining contact with 27 media groups in Rostov region, meaning about 100 publications yearly); -- publishing information material (the monthly "Women's Parliament," brochures and other material on human rights and the rights of women).
Athena works together with the Rostov regional government's Commission on Human Rights. In 1999, Athena, together with the Union "Women of the Don" (based in Novocherkassk) and the women's NGO "Sudarynia" (of Taganrog), prepared a report for a meeting of the Commission on the problem of domestic violence. In 2000, Athena prepared another report for the Commission entitled "The Status of Women in the Rostov Region." This material became a part of the Yearly Report on Human Rights in the Rostov Region, making it the first such Rostov report to contain a separate section on issues of fostering of women's rights and gender equality in region.
The work and contact with local journalists is just one of the main areas in which Athena works. At present the regional media are something of a motley scene, with practically all publications existing in survival mode. This situation in many ways defines the nature of the regional press, especially its varying degrees of "yellow" journalism.
It is true that the Rostov regional press has made quite a successful transition into independence from local organs of government, moving away from the tone and thematics of Soviet journalism.
At the same time, one cannot overlook the patriarchal structures of life in the region, which are deeply rooted in the traditions of the Don Cossacks, as well as the influence of Moslem traditions on the Don.
Publications about women mainly focus on detailed and colorful depictions of innumerable beauty contests. Sometimes one gets the impression that all the women of the Don region, no matter what their age and appearance, have joyfully rushed into the ranks of supermodels. The regional press also lauds the sacrifices that women make when they work to support a whole family, putting up with the petty tyranny of a husband, to boot, and still "maintaining her dignity." Phrases like "women's rights" and "gender equality" rarely turn up in local journalism.
From its inception, the "Athena Information Resource Center" has worked hand in hand with the journalistic community. One of its first steps was to raise the interest of media representatives in women's non-governmental organizations of the Rostov region. Since 1998 we have been sending out regular press releases not only on our own work, but also about the activities and successes of other women's NGOs in the area. As the year progressed, the media gradually shifted its interests from digging up controversial or "spicy" facts about our activities to a conscientious presentation of our formulations of various issues.
A few details can serve to indicate the history of our relations with the regional media. At the beginning of 1999, we invited journalists to take part in a seminar that Athena organized entitled "The Advancement of Social Interests: Methodologies for Lobbying," . Out of the ten newspapers invited, two replied. One of these two did not even announce the event in its pages; the other published an expanded summary, including an outline of the problems addressed at the seminar (ways to collaborate with deputies, law-making initiatives, etc.). But the editor-in-chief of the newspaper (The Rostov Courier) saw to it that the piece was entitled "Rostov Feminists Support Monica Lewinsky."
In the summer of that same year, the attitude of many journalists towards us changed when Athena became involuntarily embroiled in a scandal and came out of it with a moral victory. The Moscow-based Don Gazette (with a readership of about 100,000) published a series of scandalous articles under the title "Who is Gorbachev's Wife's Lover?" Obviously there would have been no story had not the story's protagonist shared his last name with the president of the USSR.
The story goes like this: the familial bliss of the Gorbachev couple from Taganrog completely fell apart upon the husband's discovery of his wife in the apartment of his old classmate, who also happened to be the deputy prosecutor for the region. Mr. Gorbachev tore into the apartment, beat up the prosecutor, causing serious trauma, and destroyed his wife's supposed lover's apartment and car with a sledgehammer. The next day he turned up at his wife's place of employment, publicly beat her until she lost consciousness and shaved her head. In the end Gorbachev was locked up under criminal charges.
The Don Gazette ran articles on this story for several weeks, portraying Mr. Gorbachev essentially as a victim. Moreover, the newspaper condoned the behavior of the wrathful husband, making judgments instead on the moral character of his wife, and including discussions of her appearance, behavior, and even the color of her underpants.
In response to the situation our organization suggested to the newspaper that it run a piece we had prepared outlining our evaluation of the events. Don Gazette rejected our proposal. We informed a number of other newspapers about our relations with that publication, and in the end the newspaper Standard offered to print our piece.
In the meantime, Athena's psychologist and lawyer were helping Julia Gorbachev to come to terms with her unexpected burden of "fame" (she was close to suicide at one point). Eventually, Julia worked through her personal struggles and stepped up to give her testimony in the public hearings on problems of domestic violence that Athena organized for Mother's Day in November of 1999.
The event was attended by representatives from virtually every organ of the local press, and was subsequently reported on in around 20 publications, 5 television programs and 3 radio broadcasts. Most important of all, the press treated the event seriously, perhaps for the first time portraying domestic violence as a violation of human rights.
Most of the activists in our organization are journalists. In recent years they have written numerous pieces on women's issues; indeed, about 300 such articles have been printed in 27 periodicals over the past three years. These articles address topics such as policy-making, domestic violence, women on the job market, and the exploitation of women in advertising. These days newspapers are more than happy to print our material. Athena has maintained particularly close ties with regional supplements of the Literary Gazette, the newspaper Russia, and a local publication Our Time.
Since 1999 some of our members who are journalists have put together a publication called Modest Little Blue Stocking, bringing to bear the viewpoint of women on current events. Blue Stocking has run pieces analyzing regional social programs, the problem of domestic violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, etc. It was first published weekly in the regional supplement to Moscow Komsomol, but now it makes up part of Women's Parliament, a newspaper published by our organization. We are in the process of developing a new mode of PR, including with greater frequency a column under the name Stepanida Reznikova -- a sort of shared pseudonym for the activists in our organization. We would like to increase the readership of the column, eventually placing it in various regional publications.
Recently we have received an increasing number of invitations to take part in live television shows and radio broadcasts. This is the kind of work we like to do, and the viewers and listeners respond with interest.
Another link we have forged with the regional association of journalists is a yearly educational workshop for women journalists in the Rostov region on the subject of tender [all kinds of legally binding obligations having to do with money and services], organized by Athena with financial support from the Open Society Institute.
When we started out, we sent out 100 informational letters to editors of various newspapers. Then, based on a competition, we invited 22 women journalists from local newspapers in the Rostov region to attend a series of 4 training sessions in one year. Between seminars they received regular updates from Athena on women's issues. The training program focused on instilling a general knowledge of human rights, international standards on the status of women, international and national mechanisms for protecting women's rights, undergirded by some basic legal tender theory. Classes were taught through group discussions, business-oriented games, lectures, and distance learning and consultation. As a direct result of this program, over 100 articles ran in the regional press on women's issues from the position of civilized legal tender standards. But the most important result was the formation of an association of journalists who work to shed light on women's topics from new standpoints. Today we are working on a similar program for women television journalists. We are also planning to run a similar program for men journalists.