The Ukrainian Women’s Fund announces the publication of Maidan: Women’s Business. This unique collection of interviews with the women of Maidan not only recounts their memories and reflections of Maidan, but also describes the important social initiatives contributing to the development of civil society that arose in the wave of Maidan and are being implemented today. As evidenced in Maidan: Women’s Business, women played a crucial role in the formulation of these initiatives.
Maidan was created by women and men–equally. However, mass media and popular consciousness reflect only the image of the male hero. But behind this image of the male warrior hero, one can often see many other things, authentic and true, and it is obvious: Maidan could not have happened without women.
Ukrainian Women’s Fund decided to collect these women’s stories: first, to dismantle the stereotype of the “male Maidan”; and second, to tell about the important social initiatives that are changing now corrupted systems in Ukraine – this is what Maidan was about.
“While preparing the publication Maidan: Women’s Business, we thought it was important to tell about the women who were creating Maidan. Women were really very diverse there– by age, social status, residence, level of salary, etc. And each of them had “her own” Maidan, their reason for coming… I strongly believe that Maidan is still going on. And today it is important to show that women have already done a lot–and can do much more–to establish a dialogue, to achieve peace and help stabilize the situation in the country. It is necessary to continue to involve them in these processes even more actively,“– noted Natalia Karbowska, Board Chair of Ukrainian Women’s Fund.
Maidan: Women’s Business presents the stories of Khrystyna Berdynskykh , author of the “Maidaners” community; Oleksandra Matviychuk, initiator and coordinator of Euromaidan-SOS; Maria Matviyiv, Maidan doctor; Larysa Artyugina, film director of #BABYLON’13; Marta Kolomayets, representative of Ukrainian diaspora in the USA; Lesya Orobets, Maidan “peace leader”; Anna Gulevska-Chernysh, Board member of the initiative “Family: Maidan,” and many others.
“The stories of Maidan women were interesting to me. I was often surprised by the humbleness of the women I talked to. They answered that they hadn’t done anything heroic. They just believed they were able to change the country, that they were tired of injustice. And what is most important – these women have the strength to create the State after Maidan as well. To be socially active, to amaze the surrounding world by their creative acts and take responsibility for them,” – said Iryna Vyrtosu, author and editor, journalist of the Human Rights Information Center.
In the future it is planned to translate Maidan: Women’s Business into English. See the electronic version in Ukrainian on the link.