What am I ready to do?

 

In Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on September 6, 2021, Maria Kalesnikawa and Maxim Snak were sentenced to long prison terms. The trial was held in a closed session. The trial was not intended to provide a public platform for dissidents.

The people of Belarus have long tried to resist the dictatorship of President Lukashenko. His opponents have been repeatedly silenced with police violence and arrests. After the obviously rigged presidential election results in August 2020, thousands of people took to the streets peacefully and demonstrated for months despite violence and arrests. The dictator had already had a few opponents arrested before the election, and the arrests continued, forcing the leaders of the democracy movement to flee abroad for safety. The ruler did not even hesitate to force a plane to land in Minsk to arrest a journalist. The death of an opponent in Ukraine can probably also be attributed to Lukashenko's people.

It is all the more astonishing that Maria Kalesnikawa, who was kidnapped by secret police in Minsk a year ago to be deported to Ukraine, tore up her passport at the border so that she could stay in the country. She has been in detention for a year, only to now be sentenced to 11 years in prison. Mariya Kolesnikova would not have had to face this if she had left her country. But for her, the fate of her people and the fight against oppression was worth making personal sacrifices.

With harsh punishments against people who were peacefully protesting for a functioning democracy, the regime in Belarus tries to suppress the protests. The masses of people who took to the streets in the beginning, feeling safe in the crowds, no longer exist. It looks like violence has once again won.

I have to admire the people who dared to raise their voices against injustice, risking their freedom and their lives. They have shown that their goals are more important than the personal sacrifices they make. They want to fight injustice, no matter what the cost.

In Kabul, too, women are taking to the streets to demonstrate for women's rights, despite the Taliban. They want women to be included in the new government, and women's rights to be respected. They have been allowed to participate in the building of the country over the last twenty years and do not want to be repressed again. What risks they are taking, we can only imagine.

I ask myself the question, am I willing to risk my comfort for my conviction? Am I willing to raise my voice to advocate for women's equality in my church? Can I do more than write and exhort? Some, like our Catholic sisters, leave their church because they see no prospect of reform and change. Who is ready, like Maria Kalesnikawa to stay to fight for justice? Maybe we should take an example from her and the other courageous women, and take action. We still have the opportunity to exert our influence, if we are willing to do so. How can we help St. Louis 2022 to undo the wrongs of San Antonio 2015? Are we ready for that?

 






Photo: By Сильные Новости: GomelTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJUopSv5VLY 35m28s, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93738024

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