Bulletproof: A survivor fights to end violence against women in Russia

By Svetlana Ivanova and Angelina Kazakova

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian student Darya saw her life change forever during an argument with her boyfriend in April last year.

Shaig Zeinalov, who was drunk at the time, pulled a gun at her and fired. The shot missed, but she was hit in the eye by a sliver of the bullet that ricocheted off the wall. When she yelled at him to call an ambulance, he refused.

“He said I still had a second eye to do it and I could name it myself,” recalled Darya, 19, in an interview with Reuters on the occasion of the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

So she managed to pick up the phone and said three sentences: “I am 18 years old, I was shot in the head and I am dying.”

The United Nations estimates that almost one in three women has been molested worldwide, and the number rises in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The problem is particularly acute in Russia, where macho men’s behavior is deeply ingrained and human rights groups say that laws protecting women are hopelessly inadequate.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

In 2017, President Vladimir Putin signed a law relaxing some domestic violence penalties in order to reduce state interference in family life, but activists called it a step backwards.

“Russia remains one of the few countries in the world that has no state defense mechanisms for victims of domestic violence,” Mari Davtyan, director of the Center for the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence, told Reuters.

Progress on a bill to strengthen the protection of women has been stalled by the pandemic. The spokesman for the upper house of parliament said that a bill would be tabled this autumn, but it had not yet been tabled.

Darya, who asked not to use her last name, is rebuilding her life. She wears a “Bulletproof” tattoo on her leg, has an Instagram account called “One-Eyed Beauty” and published a book about physical and emotional abuse. Her partner was imprisoned for five years.

When she gets her law degree, she plans to use it to protect more women from the suffering that has befallen her.

“Before the shot, I was a young and beautiful 18-year-old woman, did an excellent job …” she said.

“After the tragedy, I had a mutilated face. I couldn’t work … I couldn’t take care of myself properly. In fact, one shot took everything from me. “

(Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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