Tony Lashden lives where hardly anyone wants to live right now: in Minsk. While the protests for a democratic Belarus, which began after a rigged presidential election in August 2020 and to which ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka reacted with arrests and torture, are slowly disappearing from public perception, Lashden talks about life as a queer activist on her social media channels :in in the country. To the Friday did she reveal what keeps her there.
Der Freitag: Tony Lashden, Belarus has never been known for its LGBTQ friendliness. What is the situation today, now that the Lukashenka regime has stabilized?
Tony Lashden: The situation has changed. In fact, I remember how we could still organize parties in the city center of Minsk in the fall of 2018. Now that would be too dangerous. Since the refugee crisis on the border with Poland, there has also been a larger police presence and more controls in Minsk. In 2018 there were still initiatives that collected information about active discrimination against queer people. That doesn’t exist anymore either. We are less visible, public places have become unsafe. Access to medical care and education has deteriorated. Many of us have left the country.
Are you staying in Minsk anyway?
And.
What’s keeping you there?
I don’t think that’s a rational feeling. But Belarus is my home country. I support the queer community and organize social life. That’s hard to do from exile. For me it’s like a domestic violence situation: if I leave, I save a lot of energy and mental integrity. But then my house is occupied by the aggressor. Yesterday morning, the first news I saw was that there was a new wave of break-ins into journalists’ and activists’ homes. My day was ruined immediately – although it didn’t even affect me personally. I only leave when I can’t stand it any longer. However, this point has not yet been reached.
Polls by the Center for East European Studies say that the driving force behind the Belarusian protests were women. How did that happen?
The Belarusian state declares itself to be a pioneer in matters of gender equality. This is fake! The statistics say that women make up 50 to 60 percent of the workforce and are represented in parliament. But that doesn’t mean they influence decisions. Women hardly work in managerial positions. And if so, then they only have representative functions. You have no power to change the reality around you. Although on average they are better educated than men, women in Belarus attend universities more often and have more professional qualifications.
That Eastern European women could lead a revolution caused a worldwide sensation. Didn’t that surprise you?
There is such irony in that! Lukashenka has long treated women as infantile, inept individuals who would never be able to initiate political processes. They weren’t even remotely considered a threat. Going to the protests in the summer of 2020 was therefore much safer for them than for men. Because they were met with a patronizing attitude. But once it was proven that they too could organize and gain power, the same violent response from the state was seen as it had been against men.
Tony Lashden, 27, is a queer feminist activist and organizes psychological help for the LGBTQ community in Minsk. Lashden’s collection of short stories The last bus leaves at eight o’clock was recently published by a Belarusian publishing house
Were women in Belarus punished differently before?
Yes. More than 100 women are currently imprisoned for political reasons. Previously, the state did not consider such a thing for them. They have been punished by other means for their activism. For example, by signing a document allowing them to be placed under house arrest for a specified period of time. Or by having to pay a hefty fine for ten years. Politician Maria Kalesnikawa suffered bruises from her arrest and was missing for several days. In September last year, she was sentenced to eleven years in prison. From the way she is treated, one can see how the state is now also turning against women – although it officially presents itself as their “protector”.
The image we have of Belarusians in Germany is anything but feminist: young, pretty women in red and white dresses holding out flowers to the police officers.
Not all women who took part in the protests were feminists. And that’s perfectly fine too! They had a variety of reasons for taking part: they wanted to rebel against the torture in Okrestina prison and the injustice during the elections. Perhaps her family members had suffered from police violence. But of course it always depends on which pictures are selected. In fact, there were just as many older women taking part in the protest marches. But they were photographed far less. The patriarchal image of the pretty woman holding a flower caught the eye the most.
What role did the LGBTQ community play in the fight against Lukashenka?
The feminist and LGBTQ communities are closely connected in Belarus. These organizations have great expertise when it comes to providing medical and psychological help and arranging legal advice. This has been part of our work for more than ten years. We have set up functioning structures with which we support each other. One name I would like to highlight here is Olya Gorbunova. She was arrested about a month ago for taking part in a women’s march and now faces six years in prison. Olya was one of the central figures in the struggle for women’s and LGBTQ rights in Belarus. She ran a women’s shelter for victims of domestic violence for more than ten years.
In literary stories they describe what is happening in Belarus. Is there a topic that is particularly important to you?
I write a lot about violence because our society has long overlooked it. People experience violence here in all kinds of relationships. But it has only been discussed since the summer of 2020. Previously, the methods of the police were treated only as a kind of “rumor” that needed no further interference. It was only through the massive examples of torture and suffering in prisons that violence became a topic of discussion.
Does literature help?
A lot of my characters deal with trauma. In the history Go ahead, Simona For example, it is about a woman who experiences sexual abuse in the family and suffers from depression, but whose situation is so normal that nobody understands why. In Russian-language literature, in the tradition of which Belarusian literature stands, the female perspective on such topics is still hushed up. It’s only recently that people have been writing books and essays about it. For example, Julia Artemova recently published her debut novel I too am the revolution. And even then, authors receive comments as to whether this is necessary and whether these works should be published.
In 2021, in her book The Revolution Has a Female Face, Olga Shparaga put forward the thesis that the Belarusian revolution will change society for the better. A bit naive, right?
Olga was one of my lecturers in Minsk. When she wrote her book, the public perception of Belarus was very different. I too thought at the time that there had been a peaceful democratic process and groups that wanted to shape the future of our country. Unfortunately, it has to be said that for most of those who are still here, that is no longer the case. People have become more skeptical about progressive attitudes. Because they know their own safety could be compromised as a result. They shield themselves from risks. But I don’t think that they actually reject democratic processes. Those of us who left Belarus and live in other countries have become even more open to it.
Nevertheless, you criticize the media narrative of the “last dictatorship in Europe” on your social media channels, which everyone would leave. How cynical!
Many Belarusians do not have the opportunity to leave the country. Since the Ryanair incident, the border police have increased controls. Traveling abroad can be dangerous. Those who have to take care of elderly family members or children do not make this decision just like that. In addition, the quality of life here has dropped enormously. Young parents and queer youth are more affected by poverty and cannot afford to leave the country. And most of the activists who have offered them social counseling so far have had to leave Belarus. I think it’s important to tell the stories of those in exile who are working for change. However, those who are still here should not become invisible.