Women have been at the forefront of the presidential campaign in 2020 in Belarus, galvanising a nationwide protest movement against the long-standing autocratic ruler Alexander Lukashenko whose regime seemed unshakeable until then. While some observers praised the power of the female revolution, contrasting the beauty of the ‘women in white’ with the brutality of the riot police, others lamented the lack of a feminist agenda of the uprising and criticised the movement for reinforcing the existing patriarchal structures of Belarusian society (Solomatina 2020: 43), which deserves a closer look. This essay will provide insights into the roots of the uprising and the role played by women in these protests. This discussion continues the reflection initiated in the 2018 special issue of Digital Icons on ‘Women and Tech in the Post-Socialist Context: Intelligence, Creativity, Transgression’.
Image credit: Photo by Jana Shnipelson on Unsplash