Pussy Riot member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, has declared she is going on hunger strike starting today (Sept. 23). She and fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina are currently serving two-year sentences in Russia after being found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility" following a protest held at Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. The group is known for its opposition to the politics of Vladimir Putin and for championing feminist and LGBT rights.
According to the Dailybeast, the two women had requested to serve their terms in Moscow so they could be close to their families, as they are both mothers of young children. They were denied the request and are, instead, serving out their sentences in Mordovia (Tolokonnikova) and Perm (Alyokhina), which the article says are notorious for their Soviet-era prison camps. The regions are known as "the gateway to Siberia." The two women began their sentences about a year ago.
The Guardian published Tolokonnikova's open letter today. In it, she explains the human rights violations that she has witnessed at her prison camp (Mordovia) and why a hunger strike is her most effective course of action.
She writes, "The penal colony administration refuses to hear me. But I, in turn, refuse to back down from my demands. I will not remain silent, resigned to watch as my fellow prisoners collapse under the strain of slavery-like conditions. I demand that the colony administration respect human rights; I demand that the Mordovia camp function in accordance with the law. I demand that we be treated like human beings, not slaves."
She details the ways in which her rights, and the rights of others imprisoned there, are being violated.
1. She works in a sewing shop for 16 to 17 hours a day (the labor code limits the work day to 8 hours). She and the other prisoners must meet their quotas each day and may not leave work until they are met.
2. She gets four hours of sleep each night, at best.
3. They are forced to work weekends technically "out of their own desire;" however, they are under orders by the administration to submit these petitions to work.
4. If the prisoners don't obey orders or try to get out of work, they are humiliated and/or punished.
5. The administration is putting inmates in charge of brigades so that they can be the one's depriving the other inmates of their rights. This keeps the administration's "hands clean."
6. They punish the inmates collectively. So if one inmate fails to make quota, her entire brigade suffers the consequences.
7. Their sewing equipment is old and ineffective, but they are foced to maintain outrageous quotas.
8. Unofficial punishments include, staying in a fenced-off passageway between to areas of camp (called the lokalka) until lights out, regardless of weather; losing privileges to wash or use the bathroom; and losing the right to eat or drink.
The chronology of her experience and how she came to this decision reads like a diary from a concentration camp. She sums up her letter saying, "Therefore, beginning 23 September, I am going on hunger strike and refusing to participate in colony slave labor. I will do this until the administration starts obeying the law and stops treating incarcerated women like cattle ejected from the realm of justice for the purpose of stoking the production of the sewing industry; until they start treating us like humans."
To find out more information on the case or to get involved, check out freepussyriot.org. The cause has garnered international attention with musicians such as Paul McCartney, Bjork and Pete Townshend writing letters of support.
What do you think of Tolokonnikova's decision to go on hunger strike? Let us know in the comments section below.
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