Female Genital Mutilation of Girls in Dagestan (Russian Federation). Report based on the results of a qualitative study on female genital mutilation performed on girls

This report pursues a mainly practical goal: to draw attention to the practice of FGM in Dagestan in order to mobilise concern for the problem among various sectors and organisations, whose combined efforts have the potential to eradicate the practice in the region. The report’s findings are based on interviews conducted in February-March 2016 with women respondents who have undergone such operations in childhood, as well as interviews with local experts in Dagestan. An analysis of the interviews with the female respondents also illustrates how women living in Dages- tan’s mountainous villages perceive and justify the practice of FGM. Final- ly, the report presents what is probably the first legal analysis of the prac- tice under Russian national law, with reference to international law and standards.

Monitoring report “Problems of gender-based violence in the conflict zone” on results of monitoring visit of human rights activists to the ATO area

The monitoring visit has been conducted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union in summer 2015 to the city of Kramatorsk together with Women’s Information Consultative Center. It is aimed at collecting data on gender-based violence in the conflict area (occupied and liberated territories, during the conflict and after it) in order to summarize information, develop recommendations to relevant structures for victims’ protection. Also, the cases on human rights violations were transferred to the UHHRU lawyers to form the claims to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Gynaecologist’s Gaze: The Inconsistent Medicalisation of Contraception in Contemporary Russia

This essay discusses the medicalisation of contraception by gynaecologists in present-day Russia. I explore the disciplining discourse and tactics of gynaecologists as experts who aim to orient women towards properly planned and prepared pregnancy. Gynaecologists are important agents of reproductive control because they instruct women in detail about reproductive health and contraception. However, these disciplining medical discourses and professional practices are characterised by inconsistency. In accordance with the demographic priorities of the state, doctors are more oriented towards pregnancy treatment than consultation on contraception, and they are inconsistent in their regulation of contraceptive use. This biopolitical regime reflects the demographic priorities of the Russian state – to increase the population of Russia – and the role of women as the primary objects of this policy.

Feminism in Post-Soviet Belarus

How does a society with a lengthy period of socialist experience in its recent past think of the oppression of women? Would it recognize the issue at all? How would it see the origin of this oppression? Finally, what needs to be done for the world to become a better place? The way these issues have been theorized in the former socialist region was quite different from how they were seen in the West.