Daria Serenko, a Russian poet, has been forced into exile in Georgia since the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. A women's rights activist, she is the co-founder of the FAS (Feministskoye antivoyennoye soprotivlenié) or Anti-War Feminist Resistance, which operates in the Russian Federation.

On April 3rd, she will give a lecture, followed by a debate with anthropologist Véronique Nahoum-Grappe, accompanied by Daria Bourleshina and Svitlana Kovalova, on the theme:

" Women's resistance to war and dictatorship in Russia "

Utopia Bookstore – 7 p.m. – 1, rue Frédéric Sauton 75005 PARIS

Daria Serenko is also available for interviews during her stay in Paris on March 27 and 28, and then from April 1 to 3, 2023.

Created in February 2022, at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the FAS brings together 45 associations throughout the territory of the Russian Federation, in addition to dozens of anonymous activists, not counting those who have had to go into exile.

The strength of this network stems from its reliance on pre-war structures and horizontal connections, making it more difficult to control and arrest its members. However, more than 200 activists are currently facing prosecution in Russia.

The actions of the FAS, which mobilize ordinary citizens, range from public gatherings to setting fire to army recruitment offices . Resistance to regime propaganda includes intervention in neighborhood WhatsApp groups, the dissemination of advice on avoiding conscription on dedicated Telegram channels, and the distribution of the anti-war samizdat Jenskaya Pravda (Women's Pravda), also written in minority languages of the Federation, in mailboxes.

Violence in Ukraine and violence against women are one and the same scourge of Russia : virility and the cult of brutality are the ideological cement of Putin's regime and of a society where violence is everywhere: from the family sphere, where violence is exercised on women and children, to the criminal hazing that accompanies military training, passing through the now militarized school.

“ War and women’s rights are closely linked,” explains Daria Serenko,

because […] those who commit the worst crimes [on the battlefield]

" They are often the same ones who are the most brutal at home ."

In Ukraine, the mobilization of women shows their capacity in the organization of civil society: in Russia, can they constitute a force for political mobilization against the macho and masculinist dictatorship?