"Not to blame": a charity event against domestic violence

“Girls are strong”, “Equal rights for others do not mean less rights for you. This is not a pie”, “The child whose parents are cruel to him does not stop love, he ceases to love himself” - phrases that every visitor to the charity event “ is not to blame ” in Moscow has repeatedly read. She passed for three days in a row: from 7 to 9 March and was devoted to the problem of domestic violence against women.

The action included lectures by psychologists, employees of charitable foundations and NGOs, performances of musicians, performance and the play of theater.doc " Three sisters " dedicated to the work of sisters Khachaturian. The event was charity in nature: all the profit from it went to non -profit organizations providing assistance to women affected by domestic violence.

“This year, the action takes place a second time, so the idea dates back to the last year,” says one of the co -organizers of the festival and member of the Grits of Satsis Igor .

Last year, the action was organized by Vasya Spark from Bryansk and Lena Kuznetsova from Tomsk. Now Kuznetsova moved to Moscow and coordinated the festival from here. “Initially, the idea was to simply hold some kind of event dedicated to the problem of violence against women,” says Igor. It was about the creation of a local Bryansk event, but in the end, the organizers managed to transfer the action to a larger festival.

"It is guilty" - what women hear in response to the story of violence

This year, foreign cities, for example, Helsinki and Tbilisi, joined the action. The festival took place in only 40 different cities. Russian -speaking teams joined the action in Helsinki and Tbilisi, says the co -organizer. The money collected there will go to maintain the work of Russian charitable foundations and NPOs related to the topic of violence.

“In the future, we plan to expand even more in the direction of internationality. We would like the shares to exist autonomously in foreign cities and not be tied to what is happening in Russia,” Igor shares.

The Russian punk community intends to be a progressive environment. However, this is not so

The name "not to blame" the organizers chose for the action it is no coincidence. According to them, the phrase "guilty" women herself hear most often in response to the story of violence that happened to them. It sounds “ the victim’s accusation of a crime against it, it is a harmful stereotype that deeply rooted in our heads and culture,” the action says in the manifesto .

Initially, the festival existed as a local action within the Russian punk community, since the organizers were its members. “It is assumed that the Russian punk community is a fairly progressive environment. In fact, it is not such, still remaining sexist and to some extent even chauvinistic. Creating a feminist festival within the community, we hoped to fulfill the educational function,” Igor shares.

The rapists are far from always abstract villains and strangers

This year, the event grew in scale. For three days, about a thousand people visited the action in Moscow. Many of them are not part of the punk community, so this year the organizers set themselves the task of themselves wider: loudly declare the problem of violence against a woman and show that everyone can be a rapist.

“Contrary to the most common myths, rapists are far from always abstract villains and strangers. On the contrary, studies show that the vast majority of sexual violence against women are performed by their acquaintances: partners, colleagues, relatives,” the promotion says.

Every year, about 14 thousand women die in Russia as a result of domestic violence, and 36 thousand are beaten daily.