Press Release, 14.11.2019

Photo: from left to right Galina Mikhaleva, Nadezhda Zamotayeva and Olga Radayeva

On 12 November, Yabloko’s Gender Faction organized a meeting with Nadezhda Zamotayeva, Director of the independent charitable organisation the Sisters Centre. The Centre provides psychological and legal aid to victims of sexual violence and their families.

The meeting was opened by Galina Mikhaleva, Chair of Yabloko’s Gender Faction. Nadezhda Zamotaeva, Director of the centre, psychologist and author of the trainings, spoke in detail about the origin of the name and logo of the centre, the principles of provision aid and support to victims, emphasising that the problem of sexual violence is not connected with age, gender or religion.

In particular attention was paid to the vocabulary and the need to change the Russian terminology. Nadezhda Zamotaeva using the term “sexualised violence” instead of the phrase “sexual violence”. This caused a lively discussion among the participants.

Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, thanked the Sisters Centre for their work and noted that the topic of sexual violence is currently a taboo and people simply don’t know where to go, therefore it is necessary to create “shelters” and provide all kinds of support to the centers offereing aid to victims.

Photo: Participants of the meeting

Tatyana Ovcharenko, head of the School for protection of the interests and rights of citizens in the housing and utilities sector, pointed to the problem of “crowding” of the population in tiny apartments and noted that “any violence is always about borders.”

Independent psychologists participating in the discussion indicated the need to work not only with the victims, but also with the aggressors, since the responsibility for the violence lies of the aggressor.

The meeting was summed up by Olga Radayeva, First Deputy Chair of the Gender Faction, offering to cooperate together with various NGOs and other democratic political parties in order to voice the problem as loudly as possible and exert pressure from all sides.