Google – AFP, Fran Blandy (AFP), 26 March 2014
A Russian flag
hangs from a balcony of an apartment block in the
Crimean port of Sevastopol,
on March 26, 2014 (AFP, Viktor Drachev)
|
Kiev —
Political and economic sanctions may not have dissuaded Russia from annexing
Crimea, but a group of Ukrainian women have called for a different kind of
embargo: no sex for Russian men.
"Don't
give it to a Russian," is the name of the campaign, which aims to throw
cold water on Moscow's appetite for Ukrainian territory and draw attention to
its actions in Crimea.
The
campaign was launched on Facebook after Russia officially added the Black Sea
peninsula to its map, brushing off international fury and fanning fears of
further intervention in Russian-speaking parts of the former Soviet country.
"You
need to fight the enemy in every way you can," organisers urge fellow
patriotic women on their website.
But there
is more to the campaign than stopping cross-cultural liaisons.
"We
tried to make it provocative because it attracts attention," admits Irena
Karpa, a Ukrainian writer, blogger and musician.
"The
deeper true meaning is do not give away your dignity, your freedom, your
motherland. It is more about (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his
policies, it is not racist," she told AFP, acknowledging that ethnic
Russians had taken part in the street revolt that ousted pro-Kremlin president
Viktor Yanukovych in February.
The
campaign was started by a group of "accomplished" women, said Karpa,
including business owners, journalists and writers.
She said
the phrase "don't give it to a Russian" is a modern version of a line
in one of the works of hugely popular Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko:
"Fall in love, O dark-browed maidens, but not with the Moskaly
(Russians)."
"We
were inspired by our current situation, the annexation of Crimea, the huge
appetite of Mr Putin, who is looking at our eastern border regions."
The group's
Facebook page, which has garnered more than 2,300 likes, has swept the Internet
and was also picked up by popular Russian newspapers.
'More for
us'
Some
Russian men derided the plan, while others took offence.
"You
shouldn't 'give it' to people who are Soviet-style Putin supporters, not to all
Russians. What do Russians have to do with this?... You yourself write this in
Russian," wrote Anton Grigoriev on the Facebook page.
On the
Moscow website Lifewews.ru, known for its close links to Russia's security
agencies, a woman called Olga Silayeva wrote: "Don?t sleep with Russian
men then, all the more for us."
Organisers
are also selling T-shirts with an image of two hands cupped together which,
depending on how you look at it, resembles a prayer pose or a vagina.
"The
money goes directly to buy supplies for our poorly financed army, Ukrainian
women are trying to help our soldiers," said Karpa.
The
Ukrainian activists join a long line of women from Liberia, Kenya, Togo,
Colombia and other countries who have in the past tried to use sex boycotts to
sway men from the path of war.
The
tradition dates all the way back to ancient Greece and Aristophanes's play
"Lysistrata", in which women refuse to sleep with their men until
they end the Peloponnesian war.
The bitter
diplomatic crisis over Ukraine has highlighted the fractured identity of a
country divided between Russian and Ukrainian speakers.
Karpa said
she broke up with her last "imperialistic" Russian boyfriend after a
quarrel over Moscow's invasion of Georgia in 2008.
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