Harassment of student after dance shows vulnerable situation of women in Caucasus

In Vladikavkaz, a female student was subjected to harassment after dancing in public, and the girl needs support, members of a feminist movement declare.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that an African student of supplementary courses at a university and a female student of the Vladikavkaz Lyceum voiced public apologies for their dance, which local residents considered indecent. Meanwhile, the police began verifying the female student's complaint about threats.

Journalist and feminist Natalia Bitten believes there are no grounds whatsoever in a story of harassment of the female student in Vladikavkaz.

"People who don't like dances have the right not to perform or watch them. At the same time, no one has any moral right to blame other people for dancing, let alone persecute and demand anything from them. And if there are haters and persecutors, they should be brought to responsibility," Natalia Bitten said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The girl subjected to harassment needs support, Natalia Bitten believes.

Lana Uzarashvili, a participant of the Moscow project "Fem Talk", notes that the role of the guy in the dance has been in fact ignored in the story, since "the patriarchal norms treat a woman as a temptress who provokes men."

"In general, the patriarchal norms proceed from the interpretation that a woman herself acts as an impulse to such actions, and she is always to be blamed, while a man is polygamous by his nature, and for him it is an absolute biological necessity to behave that way, and the responsibility is allegedly imposed on a woman ... This is a way for men to shift responsibility in order to justify their own weakness," Lana Uzarashvili said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 30, 2019 at 05:10 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.