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and Space Administration, she said, “As a w om an I have b een envious o f these m e n w ho c o u ld p a rtic ip a te in the s p a c e p ro g ra m a n d w ho w ere e n c o u ra g e d to e x c e l in th e area s o f m a th a n d sc ien ce. I fe lt th a t w o m en h a d in d e e d b e e n le ft o u ts id e o f o n e o f the m o s t e x c itin g ca re ers available. ’’ Christa McAuliffe, mother of two small children, taught law, economics and American history in a high school in Concord, New Hampshire. She was also the initiator of a popular course in her school entitled “The American Woman.” Mrs. McAuliffe, a popular and res pected educator, was very much in touch with the peo ple aspect of her career. This was reflected in the goals she wished to achieve with her extraordinary venture into space. She said, “M y p e rc e p tio n s as a n o n -a s tro n a u t w o u ld h e lp c o m p le te a n d h u m a n iz e the te c h n o lo g y o f the sp ac e age. F u tu re his toria ns w o u ld use m y e y e w it ness a c c o u n ts to h e lp in th e ir s tu d ie s o f th e im p a c t o f the sp ac e a g e on the g e n e ra l p o p u la tio n .” Christa, Judith and their teammates were part of an elite group — pioneers of the last frontier — space. Men and women, working together and dying together, in the never-ending quest of the human spirit to conquer the unconquerable, to see beyond the darkness. Their courage was forged from granite, their determination is tougher than steel. RAISA MOROZ DISSIDENT WOMEN: The Wives of Political Prisoners Conclusion This is the c o n c lu s io n o f R aisa M o r o z ’s address a t the S e c o n d -W re a th C o n fe re n c e h e ld in E d m o nto n , in O cto be r, 1985. Minimal personal privacy is out of the question. The authorities may listen in, not only on private telephones but even to conversations in the home. In 1965, after the arrest of a number of Ukrainian intellectuals, their wives were confronted with entire conversations, conducted on the telephone or in private. The KGB officers some times recited them by heart, in an attempt to obtain the confessions they wanted: “you might as well confess to your anti-Soviet opinions, because we know all about them anyway!” My telephone was disconnected on several occa sions for six months at a time. At first, they thought up different excuses, but then, they told me the real reason: I was “passing on information abroad by telephone." A political prisoner’s wife is deprived of everything possible, including a place to live, an opportunity to work in her profession, and even her good name. KGB men are not ashamed to gossip during interrogations of political prisoners, making all sorts of insinuations about their wives and children. They would send people, especially men, to follow the women and bait them. The KGB sent agents to try and seduce the wife. This is all part of the plan to demora lise the husbands and to discredit the wives of political prisoners in the eyes of society.3 Regular and non-personal meetings with the impri soned husbands permitted by the law, usually turn into harassment and humiliation. The wife with her small children must overcome thousands of kilometers to get to this long-awaited meeting. Often she arrives only to discover that her husband’s visiting privileges have been suspended. Humiliating procedures before and after each per sonal visit destroy the anticipated joy of the meeting with the prisoner. The woman guard, who hardly could be called a human being, tells you to undress com pletely. She probes the seams of your clothes, feels your hair, peers into your mouth and forces you to squat for a body search. Nevertheless, each woman is willing to submit to this humiliation for the sake of the joy in seeing her husband, son or brother. It is the 4th y e a r o f im p riso nm ent o f Jurij Badzio, sentenced to 7 years o f concentration camps and 5 years exile... -w rote Svi- tlana K yrychenko in h er “O pen L e tte r” addressed to the W om ens’ W orld O rganization. O ver m ore than 3 years we were allow ed only one personal visit (from 1-3 days in a prison ‘‘hotel") although according to the labo ur cam p regulations the prisoner has the rig ht to have such visits from his fam ily every year. Year in and y e a r out, n ot even for one second, do o ur children have a chance to com e close to their father, to touch his hand, to confide in him, to ask about his health, to tell him about themselves, w ithout guards present. O nly once in six months are we p erm itted a short non- p erson al m eeting; during this m eeting we are separated by a huge table that stands in a dark room where we are w atched over by three o r even four guards, so that one forgets the m ost com m on words, the throat is parched and the tongue is stif fened with em otion..." * Cited after "Zhinochyi Svit" no. 9, September 1983, p. 4 ’’НАШЕ Ж ИТТЯ”, ЛЮ ТИЙ 1986 23
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