Fighting for Polish women’s rights: An interview with Olga Adhikari
‘Strajk Kobiet’ — ‘All-Poland Women's Strike’, a social movement for women’s rights
Illustration by Nadya Miryanova
Russian Editor, Nadya Miryanova
On 22nd October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland imposed a near-total ban on abortion by outruling pregnancy termination in cases of foetal defects. Following the implementation of this law on 27th January 2021, the only premises for a legal abortion in Poland are in instances of rape, incest, or direct threat to the woman’s life. In 2019, these reasons accounted for only 2% of the 1100 abortions carried out in Poland. The remaining 98% were carried out due to foetal defects, effectively meaning that the Polish government has removed the main reason women have abortions.
Last term, I spoke to Olga Adhikari — Polish citizen and activist for women’s rights— about the situation in Poland and the actions of its government. She comments upon the Court’s decision and the reaction it has incited: “The ruling strongly infringes the rights of women, and there’s been a wave of mass protests because the government tried to do something like this in 2016. A repressive public project was put forward, which called for further restrictions on abortion rights, but it was rejected due to the massive uproar it caused on the streets. There was a huge strike called ‘Black Monday’, where Polish women marched through the streets wearing black as a sign of mourning for their reproductive rights. What the government has now done is put forward this extremely controversial bill, which not only restricts women’s right over law, but does so during Coronavirus, while cases are on the rise in Poland and there are restrictions on protests. Unlike 2016, when women could go outside and protest, we’re now in a position where doing this would be illegal and unsafe. Protests are still happening, as it’s the only way women can effectively voice their concerns, but the large numbers attending will increase the spread. The government will probably use this as another ideological weapon to persuade voters that the left is responsible for rises in COVID cases, and they’re spreading it because they do not care about human life.”
“The more the politicians of the ruling party speak out, the more saddening it is.” adds Olga, “There’s been a movement going against the protests in Poland, where many far-right organisations send out people to attack protesters under churches. There was a case where a member of the Civil Security Service ran over two women protesting, one of whom ended up in hospital, and he got let off without charges. It is absolutely horrific and the government is doing nothing to discourage the blatant violence that is taking place. Instead, it is actually encouraging it, which is extremely upsetting.”
Poland’s ruling party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość/PiS (Law and Justice), is a national conservative and far-right populist government which has been in power from 2015. Since their election, the party’s policies revealed strong connections with the country’s powerful Catholic Church. Provisions have been put in place, whereby the government gives 500 złoty a month for each child a woman has. By this logic, if a woman has 6 children, she would receive 3000 złoty per month — a sum greater than Poland’s current minimum wage. The governing party has not only restricted abortions, but it has limited access to contraception, refused to finance infertility treatment, and eradicated sexual education altogether.
“I’m a woman not a womb” read one of the banners from the Cambridge women’s strike on 25th October 2020, photo taken by Maria Kamińska
“Sexual education is seen as sexualising children and acting as a tool of LGBT propaganda in Poland”, says Olga, “LGBT rights are a whole other issue — it’s truly tragic that LGBT is not seen as a community of people in Poland, but just as an ideology. You’ll never hear the term ‘LGBT’ used in the news to speak about actual people, you will hear it termed ‘LGBT ideology’. I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve by that, it’s just another ideological tool. I think a large reason for why our society looks the way it does is because the Church played a pivotal role in opposition to communism — we were the first country to leave the USSR. However, this is just the context — it’s no excuse for current events, and should definitely not be used to justify the current Polish government. Unfortunately, this bill is something you’d expect from them, it’s not surprising to any degree. Our government does not properly support women, as it confines them to their traditional roles — staying in the kitchen, doing the housework, and having children.” A fellow spokesperson from the Polish Cambridge community supports Olga’s point: “PiS has targeted the courts in Poland, the LGBT, and women. The process of decay in our country has been in place for several years.”
Olga elaborates on the widespread discrimination against women who have abortions in Poland — it is estimated that up to 200,000 women have abortions carried out abroad, especially in nearby countries like Slovakia, The Czech Republic, and Sweden. However, many do not have the means to travel and several illegal abortions are performed for women at home, where a lack of safety and absence of official medical aid poses a huge health risk. “It’s not that abortions aren’t happening.” explains Olga, “They are happening, but through other means. The Polish government has just created an environment where women have no autonomy over their body — they cannot make an independent decision. Under this new law, they’re being forced to deliver children who are likely to die after their birth because of irreversible foetal defects. The government is putting them through the trauma of carrying through a pregnancy in which they know that their child is going to die. If the child doesn’t die, but still has some genetic defects, then the Polish government does not have good structures in place to provide health to disabled children. It’s essentially making women give birth to children that they know they won’t be able to take care of, which is incredibly emotionally draining and equally awful for the child, who has to grow up in a society where they might not have the necessary family structures to thrive.”
Frustrated by the judgement of the Polish government and determined to effectuate positive change, Olga organised a local protest alongside Barbara Węgrzyn, Laura Lenkiewicz, and Maria Kamińska from the Cambridge Polish community in order to raise awareness of the issue. “What we’ve been doing in Cambridge is an extension of what’s been happening in Poland, where mass protests reached numbers of 200,000 in several Polish cities, and it’s all done in response to the ruling of the constitutional tribunal.” says Olga, “We saw some of the discussions taking place within the Cambridge Polish community and were disgusted— we decided that something had to be done because there was an obvious need for action. We publicised a protest on Parker’s Piece through a Facebook event and messaged people privately about it. This seemed like the best port of call — none of us had prior experience in organising protests, because they’re usually so big in Poland that you can just join them.”
Group photo of the first protest against Poland’s anti-abortion law in Cambridge, photo taken by Maria Kamińska
Despite widely publicising the protest only a day before its occurrence, over 60 people came to Parker’s Piece to show their support. People from various societies and different colleges attended, with many staying for the entirety of the protest. During Michaelmas term, four protests for Polish women’s rights took place — the second was organised in conjunction with the Polish diaspora in Cambridge and the last one before lockdown was led by Olga herself. “The protests were largely symbolic, because we’re not in Poland and it’s heartbreaking to think that we can’t join other women and people protesting on the streets.” explains Olga, “I guess it was just important for us to show people, especially the extensive Polish diaspora in Cambridge, that we do not want to be a community where this kind of issue goes unseen and it’s met with a passive response. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do politically, because we are civilians and not politicians. However, we want to engage the Cambridge Polish community to make sure it’s an issue that is being talked about, not one that is being put in a secondary place. We want to show solidarity and spark discourse about this fundamental issue of women’s rights.”
Olga describes the atmosphere and proceedings of these protests: “We made a lot of banners and joined up with many other people at Parker’s Piece. The protests were organised in rows of 6 people to ensure social distancing, and we all had masks on. We tended to switch between Polish and English, since there’s something very cathartic about shouting in Polish about your situation in the middle of Cambridge. Four people came up and spoke, I was amongst them, and we spoke from the heart about why we were there, why we are angry about the issue in English, so that passers-by could hear as well. We talked to many people passing, explained why we were protesting, and directed them to resources if they were interested. Some of them even got in touch with us afterwards, many people were ringing their bells in support, some were taking photos — it was very nice because we generally had a very positive response.”
I ask her about the symbolism underlying the Polish protests and the banners that were used: “One of the signs of the campaign is a red lightning bolt, which is the symbol of the women’s protests, not an SS symbol, as the right-wing have been claiming. The Polish phrases for ‘fuck off’ and ‘fuck the ruling party’ have also been used — the right-wing have also attacked the movement for using vulgar phrases, but we are very angry and these expressions do permeate much more than polite language. This is nothing to be polite about any more, it has been going on for far too long. Many people came up with very imaginative ideas too. The woman at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement in Poland is called Kaja Godek, so someone had a poster saying: ‘In Poland, we have no God, there is just Godek’. We were chanting stuff collectively as a group and trying to spread our message of choice for women as far as possible. Overall, I think the protests were very successful — I’m very proud of us for showing up for Polish women.”
“We were chanting stuff collectively as a group and trying to spread our message of choice for women as far as possible”, photo taken by Maria Kamińska
Olga talks about the reaction these protests incited in the wider Cambridge community: “Several people were very shocked upon learning about women’s rights in Poland. It was absurd to many people from the UK — where abortions laws are quite liberal —that we are still protesting for something like this. In England, there is access to sexual education, it’s just common knowledge, and it’s often a very safe environment. If you go to the GP, she will help you pick out the appropriate contraception for yourself — it’s talked about a lot more. By contrast, in Poland, sex in general is a taboo subject. It’s strange to think that we’re living in a country where we have access to all these things — were we to live back home, we’d be completely deprived of it. At the moment, we’re working on a municipal scale to instigate gradual change, because there are all kinds of NGOs and charitable organisations which help women get abortions abroad and gain access to sexual education.”
In light of the bill’s recent ratification, protests have been resumed in Poland and thousands have gathered in the streets to show their opposition. Though the UK lockdown is still in effect, Olga continues to show her support through Polish Facebook diaspora groups, keeping the conversation going and raising awareness as much as possible. A crucial part of progressing the situation still lies with the activity of the NGOs, who work ceaselessly to provide aid and information to Polish women.
Olga leaves me with a final, very important message — that campaigning against the government’s anti-abortion bill is the clearest way of showing support for an integral matter of women’s rights. The right of choice and full bodily autonomy are factors that should always be affirmed by a country’s government, regardless of their predominant system of beliefs and political ideology.
