mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;
mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">This week our guest on the podcast is Marina
Pisklakova-Parker. Marina Pisklakova-Parker is a Russian women's rights
activist and writer. She was the founder of
ANNA(Regional Organization for Assistance to Women and Children Victims of Domestic
Violence), one of the first women's crisis centres in Russia to help victims of
domestic violence. Marina has also addressed the problem of trafficking in
women and children.
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;
mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">The issues discussed in the podcast include: the
founding of
ANNA, the first such centre
in Russia; ANNA’s activities in the early years; the main activities of ANNA
today; changes in perceptions of domestic violence in Russia since the early
1990s; the extent to which the state is a positive and reliable partner in
working against domestic violence; religious attitudes to domestic violence; the
future of human rights in general in Russia and domestic violence in
particular.
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;
mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen to
the podcast on our
website or on
SoundCloud,
Spotify and
iTunes. The music, from
Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.
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Sergei Nikitin writes
on
Facebook:
Marina Pisklakova-Parker: "This was not the first crisis centre. The ANNA
centre appeared in parallel with one in St. Petersburg, and near the time the
Sisters centre began working in Moscow. I created my first telephone hotline in
1992. The impetus for this work came from gender research, which became
available to us only in post-Soviet Russia. I started to receive letters from
victims. It was from these letters that my interest in the issue began, because
no one talks about domestic violence. This is what drove me to do it.” In our
conversation, Marina talked about the prospects for passing a law on domestic
violence in Russia and about the connection between so-called ‘traditional
values’ and violence against women. About the fact that citizens, alas, do not
understand what rights they have and do not know how to use them. And about how
ANNA helps. ANNA has accumulated huge experience in the fight against the scourge
of domestic violence over three decades. The organisation has united
specialists from the regions and countries of the former Soviet Union into an
informal network which continues to grow and develop. They provide assistance,
conduct monitoring, interact, educate themselves and others, and share their
experiences. Only by joining together can gender-based violence be defeated.
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SimonCosgrove adds: A summary of some of the week’s
events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website
here.
