“The feminist ideology focuses not on the family or bringing up children, but on different function of women that is often set against family values,” says head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, quoted by new-agency RIA Novosti.
The Patriarch’s criticism against feminism continued: “I believe…feminism is very dangerous, as feminist organizations proclaim pseudo-freedom for women, supposed to be displayed first of all beyond marriage and family,” Kirill openly stated.
“The feminist ideology focuses not on the family bringing up children, but on a different function of women that is often set against family values. It is probably not by chance that most feminist leaders are unmarried women.”
Also on Tuesday, Russia’s Parliament, the State Duma, approved in its first reading a bill that would radically toughen penalties for those who offends believers’ feelings or desecrate relics and places of worship.
With the new law, penalty for a person that publicly offends believers’ feelings increases to a minimum 300,000 rubles (€7,412) or 200 hours of community service. Maximum penalty will be three years in prison. The text of the new law is published on the portal of the State Duma.
For defiling places of worship or relics, the new law stipulates fines from 100,000 rubles (€2,468) to 500,000 rubles (€12,341). That is slightly more than an average annual salary in Murmansk. Maximum prison term will be five years.
For feminist groups in Russia, the new law could be problematic.
Patriarch Kirill says women should first of all be “the center of family life, the hearth keepers,” and underlines that women very well could build career, be involved in business activities and politics if those occupations are “not in conflict with family values.”
