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"They Have Nothing Sacred Left"

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"They Have Nothing Sacred Left"

Pregnant Belarusians spoke out against Lukashenka's punishers.

After the rally, both a teenage child and a pregnant woman may be in the paddy wagon. That is why some Belarusians are forced to look for an alternative to street actions. Activists express their disagreement with what is happening through video messages or photo projects, rebenok.by reports.

"The fear of being left to live in a country without the law has become the main incentive for our new photo project," says family photographer Dzina Yarmolenka. For her, this is not the first series of protest photographs.

Recently, the media published white-red-white photos with mothers of babies. Dzina helped young mothers to express their emotions. After that, Nastsia Shylina, mother of a 3-year-old boy, knocked on the photographer's private messages. The woman from Minsk is expecting her second child and, like many other pregnant women, is afraid to go to street actions.

"But that doesn't mean we don't read the news and don't see what is happening. It hurts me that my friends and just brave, courageous people are suffering. I am scared that what we used to read about only in fairy tales and history textbooks - murder, torture, beatings - become our everyday reality. It is unbearable to me that I cannot influence all this in any way. If I go out to protest, I will risk my baby's life. If I say nothing, I will miss the awakening of my country. More often than not, my fears remain deep inside, isolating me even more from my friends, because what do emotions mean compared to real fractures, sentences, and layoffs?

The women of Minsk united and came up with a photo project dedicated to pregnancy in the context of the political crisis in Belarus.

- Our project is about fears that do not let expectant mothers into the crowd. Everyone understands how dangerous it is. At the same time, emotionally, many are already tired of the horror and delirium that occurs on the streets. Therefore, we decided to open the topic in the form of some absurdity, so as not to "hang" with a serious look the problem on people, - explained Dzina Yarmolenka.

Yauhenia, one of the participants in the photo project, is now in her sixth month of pregnancy. At first, she went to protest rallies, but, observing the actions of the security forces, she came to the conclusion that this was too much of a risk. And, even just going out to the city streets on personal business, the Minsker does not feel safe.

- It is very scary to accidentally get beaten, get under a thrown smoke bomb, or a running crowd of security officials who sweep away everyone in their path - both the elderly and children. It seems to me that they no longer have anything sacred. We are scared to let our children go outside and go out ourselves. We have about 900 pregnant women and young mothers in our chat, and they all fear for their husbands, for their parents, for their children, for their health, and for their lives. For many, after August 10, their husbands did not return home; the women were waiting for them at home with newborns. No one can put up with this anymore; there will soon be no apolitical people.

In total, five pregnant Belarusian women took part in the project - all at late terms. It was easy to find those willing. It turned out to be a very hot topic for pregnant women.

— We threw a cry in social networks and realized that many expectant mothers wanted to Express themselves, at least somehow apply themselves to the topic of white-red-white. I even had to refuse three women, as the number of participants was limited. But they shared their clothes for the shoot. I found two raincoats and a coat in my neighbor's house," Dzina laughs. — People are very willing to help because they understand that the topic is important and valuable.

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