Before the full-scale war, the Bilkis group, originally from Kharkiv, which has since fled to Lviv, was developing feminist popular education, organising demonstrations and rallies against gender-based violence and public meetings. But since 24 February, the feminist group has had to face new tasks, for which it had no experience. It has put all its strength into humanitarian activities with impressive results. For example, on 21 July 2022 alone, the group announced that it had sent 21 packages to Dnipro. In total, 62,000 Hryvnia (12,500 euros) of individual parcels, including nappies, baby food, medicines and hygiene products, had been spent in that month alone. A few weeks later, the group announced that it had supported another 35 families with children. By the beginning of September 2022, Bilkis claimed to have helped 700 families.

However, Bilkis has not abandoned her feminist activities. This was demonstrated by their active participation in the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence in November and December. During the 16 Days, the group launched a campaign to denounce the brand Drunken Cherry, a brand of liquor that displays a naked woman on its bottles, and organised three rallies in Lviv in front of one of the shops of the sexist brand. The last rally resulted in being harassed by fascists from the Katharsis group and denounced by a city councillor who went so far as to contact the SBU (Ukrainian security services) to have Bilkis’ activities stopped. Not intimidated by these maneuvers, the day after this last rally, Bilkis put up posters in the streets of Lviv on sexual consent and the day after distributed leaflets on violence against women in front of the Lviv Opera House.

To support an antipatriarchal, anticapitalist feminism, let’s support Bilkis: (even small donations are useful)

Paypal - fem.bilkis gmail.com

By bank transfer
IBAN
UA683220010000026200328957771
Beneficiaries KUTSENKO YANA
Bank
JSC UNIVERSAL BANK
Swift code UNJSUAUKXXX

Patrick Le Tréhondat

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