Black Monday

While Germany is celebrating Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day), in their Eastern neighbours Czarny protest (Black Protest) is taking place. Polish women are fighting for their fundametal rights and show their opposition to the planned abortion law. Proposed law prohibits abortion under any circumstances and it will imprison women for 5 years if passed.

Current Polish law allows abortion in three circumstances: 1. the life of the foetus is under threat, 2. the life of the mother is under threat, 3. pregnancy from rape or incest. The new law would prohibit abortion at all. It would also suggest that women who suffer a miscarriage will be under a criminal suspicion as well as the doctors.

“My mother is very Catholic, goes to church every Sunday, and is against abortion just because you might not want the child,” says Małgorzata Łodyga, a junior doctor who supports the strike. “But she is against this law, because if a woman is raped, she will be treated worse than the man who raped her.”
(source: www.theguardian.com)

The idea of total ban of abortion received the support from the Catholic church and Law and Justice party (PiS) yet it was initiated by a group of strictly conservative lawyers called Ordo Iuris under the name of “citizens’ initiative”. When on 23rd September the Polish government voted for the Stop Abortion’s new proposal, the pro-choice activists started to call for “national absence campaign” and encourage Polish citizens, especially women to stand up and fight for their rights. Therefore, on 3rd October lots of women wearing black clothes and supported by male citizens went to the streets of Polish cities and towns manifesting their freedom of deciding about their body and future. Many countries all around the world showed their support to Polish women by organizing similar ‘black protests’, posting photos and videos on social media websites, i.e.:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2bGy2DuUZ0&feature=share

www.facebook.com/ConfederationPlanningFamilial/photos

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5hvWdM9ZHQ

“A lot of women and girls in this country have felt that they don’t have any power, that they are not equal, that they don’t have the right to an opinion,” said Magda Staroszczyk, a strike co-ordinator. “This is a chance for us to be seen, and to be heard.”
(source: www.theguardian.com)

Photos taken by Max Hafemann and Daria Jaranowska

  Beata Jaranowska

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