NEW YORK, July 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Russian collective Pussy Riot will
perform in Alabama on Thursday, a sold-out concert to raise money for women’s
rights groups in light of state’s recent passage of a near-total ban on
abortion.
Proceeds from the Birmingham benefit will go to Planned Parenthood and the
Yellowhammer Fund, a group that gives assistance to women seeking abortions
at one of the southern US state’s three clinics.
In May, Alabama lawmakers triggered outrage after pushing through
legislation making abortion a felony — even in cases of rape or incest,
unless the mother’s health is at risk — punishing doctors with up to 99
years in prison for providing the procedure.
“It is ridiculous to me that it’s still a question in 2019 whether women
can have an abortion,” Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova told AFP
ahead of the performance.
“We want to come to Alabama and support women who are in quite a critical
and vulnerable position right now,” she said. “Many Americans, they believe
that Russia is a patriarchal country — it’s true in a lot of ways, but when
it comes to abortion rights, it’s not questionable.”
The Soviet Union in 1920 became the first state in the world to legalize
abortion, though it was banned under Joseph Stalin for nearly two decades
starting in 1936.
An anti-abortion movement does exist in Russia, with activists seizing on
the country’s declining population as reason for a ban, but according to
Tolokonnikova it is only “insane, crazy freaks who claim that women don’t
have right to have an abortion” there.
Though she feels “the US going backwards” the 29-year-old said she sees
progress “because activism is blooming and the feminist movement is stronger
than any time.”
“The feminist movement today is so strong that it will be able to overcome
these obstacles,” the Moscow-based activist said. “Those white, male dudes
who are voting against abortion rights, they’re part of the history. They’re
not really relevant.”
She sees legislation like that signed in Alabama as evidence of politicians
who are “angry, and desperate, because they feel that their time (in power)
is about to end.”
– Activism ‘a mindset’ –
The anarchist Pussy Riot collective has gained international fame for its
politically charged performances that see members don balaclavas and skewer
everything from the Russian church to persecution of the country’s gay
community.
In 2012, Tolokonnikova was among the members sentenced to two years in a
prison colony for “hooliganism and religious hatred,” for performing a song
protesting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite her time in prison, Tolokonnikova says she will never give up
activism: “It’s a mindset. It’s something you can’t really escape. It’s a
part of me.”
She became a young mother 11 years ago, an experience that gave her “more
conviction” in her feminism.
“Having a baby who is a girl definitely convinced me that I should try to
make my country and the world a better place for my girl to live in,” she
said. “I’m still fighting laws of patriarchal ghosts.”
The ban in Alabama is set to go into effect November 15.
But the law — which was designed as a challenge to the landmark 1973 US
Supreme Court ruling Roe v Wade, which made abortion legal nationwide in the
US — may be blocked in court before then.
“I’m looking forward to meeting inspiring people, who are surviving in an
environment that is not particularly open to progressive people,”
Tolokonnikova said of her upcoming show.
“I like to go to places that are not super obvious to play in,” she said.
“I want to support those progressive people who decided to stay in a place
like Alabama and make that state more progressive and more open-minded. If I
can help just a little bit, I’d be really happy to.”
“That’s the beauty of art, it can unite people with different views.”