A woman’s place is in the home, especially the kitchen. Women should be good mothers and look after their menfolk. If they go to cafes, pubs or night clubs, they should be arrested.
These “words of wisdom” were spoken by Alexander Mozgovoy — commander of the separatist Prizrak Battalion in south-east Ukraine — at the first “trial” staged by a “people’s court” in the so-called Lugansk People’s Republic.
The two defendants in the “trial” had already been found guilty of rape. The role of the “people’s court” — held in late October, attended by about 300 inhabitants of Alchevsk, and presided over by Mozgovoy and two other military officers — was to decide on the penalty by a show of hands.
One defendant was sentenced to death by firing squad. The other was sentenced to be sent to the front line, so that he could “atone for his guilt with blood” and “die with dignity”.
Mozgovoy took the “trial” as an opportunity to expand upon his views about women:
“If I see even just one girl in a café or a pub tomorrow, she will be arrested. A woman must be the guardian of the hearth, a mother. But what kind of mothers are they after going to pubs? How can they bring up their children? What example are they giving?
“If you want to remain an honest person and devoted to your husband, stay at home and do embroidery. All pubs are full of the female population, all night clubs. What kind of female population do we have here? Are they all prostitutes, or what?”
(Interrupted by another military officer on the “bench” commenting that “they all need to be raped”, Mozgovoy responded — in a “trial” which itself dealt with two rapists — with the words: “There’s an element of truth in that.”)
“So, I repeat. A special order will be issued to patrols: to arrest all women who are found in pubs. [Commotion in the auditorium.] I said: all! And then let’s see whether you drink. Stay at home, bake pirozhki, and celebrate 8th March [International Women’s Day].
“You don’t like what I’ve said? It’s time that you remembered that you are Russians. It’s time to regain your spirituality.”
In the following days Mozgovoy tried to backtrack from his statements. In an interview with Radio Moscow he claimed:
“Nobody is speaking of a ban. Just about people taking a look at themselves. It was a trial of two rapists. But people began shouting and making a noise because of women not being allowed to have another glass of vodka. These were not suggestions or instructions. Just an attempt to get people thinking that it’s time to think a bit about morals.”
The Lugansk authorities themselves are so proud of creating a “legal system” which represents a throwback to 1930s Stalinist Russia, peppered with Islamic State misogyny, that they have recorded the entire proceedings and even created a trailer to encourage people to watch them.
• Trailer: http://bit.ly/1uifBLh
• Proceedings: http://bit.ly/11dY8ZP
