Russia and its Pussies
My dear friends, brace yourselves. It will be a long ride. Got your seat belts on? Okay then, let's roll...
Maybe it's just me, but words "religious" and "hatred" don't sound like they could stand next to each other when we are talking about feelings of a religious person. The main reason for my humble opinion is that such combination in itself would be a contradiction of what most organised religions preach and definitely a contradiction for a spiritually intelligent being. And yet, one of the core legal arguments against the Pussy Riot was that this group promoted feminism, which by itself ignites a "religious hatred" in the souls of the Russian Christians...
Was this the only absurdity in the Pussy Riot judgement?
So the girls have defiled the cathedral. According to the witnesses (cathedral employees and religious visitors), this was especially done by shouting offences to the names of God and His Holiness the Patriarch himself. This is according to the witnesses. These same witnesses stated in court that they had not heard any political slogans in the girls' words,and thus regard girls' act as solely anti-religious. Now the interesting bit: these same witnesses have stated that all they had witnessed was how five (yes, five, only three caught) girls were screaming SOME words, chaotically waving their arms and legs and dancing... Oh, but the witnesses' feelings did manage to get hurt; witnesses had made sure the court heard this point better than what the witnesses themselves heard on the day of the riot.
Were the girls attacking God? Witnesses managed to figure out one clear statement from girls' mouths: "Holy Mother, become feminist!" To me, calling this an attack on God is a paradox. As one of the Pussy Riot girls pointed out, should the Holy Mother enter any Christian church or cathedral, she would not be allowed into the Altar because she is not a man... Now THAT is an attack on God!
Perhaps, they were attacking His So-Called-Holiness? Oh yes, very much so. Moreover, one of the Pussy Riot girls was so opened about it, she even talked about this in court! And why shouldn't she? If His So-Called-Holiness allowed himself to call his congregation to vote for Putin, stating that Putin's political power is from God, than what holy is there to respect in His Holiness? May I remind you that the riot itself took place on 21February 2012, before Putin (now nick-named - by group Femen - Pussyn) was "elected" for the third time? The riot was directed at showing opposition to the prediction of Pussyn becoming a President and Medvedev becoming a Vice on 4 March 2012...
Well, perhaps this would be the end of the ludicrousness? Oh no, the judges had almost 3 hours to embarrass themselves while reading out their judgement!
So the judges were not ashamed to read out loud the legal psychological-psychiatrical expert statements that called Pussy Riot girls sufferers of mixed personality disorder. The following was stated as evidence for this disorder: active life position, relying on personal experience in decision-making process, aims of self-realisation with standing up for social values that are overvalued in their significance and distinctiveness of interests, self-confidence... and so on, and so on... I kid you not, this is my word-for-word translation. The state of the disorder was not regarded to be serious enough to argue that girls did not understand what they were doing on the day of the riot, and no necessity for the mental hospitalisation was found [yet], so the prison sentence remains intact.
What can I say? Of course girls must be mad! Why else would they say that the given cathedral is not a House of God, a place of a spiritual life, but an office, even a business centre, with its own banquet halls that are rented out for money, its own laundry room and guarded carpark?
Source - judgement, full text in Rus at http://www.bg.ru/stories/11662/
PS: Just like word "holy" is turned head down in our upside-down world, a law provision protecting Russians against someone who wants to ignite hatred is also upside down... A guy who publicly shared a video against skinheads (who are a big problem in Russia as they literary beat up and slaughter non-Russians and non-traditionally looking Russians) was accused yesterday (20.08.2012) in igniting hatred towards nationalistically-oriented citizens of Russian Federation. Is this paradox? Not in a land where thugs have ruled on every level of everyday lives for the past century; not in a country where every one, including toddlers, knows and speaks prison slang.
PS2: You should hear what Russians are bubbling on about gay rights! Perhaps I'll do another article on that one day ;)
PS3: Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I think I might have a mixed personality disorder.................