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Our Chechen Sisters by Irena Danysh On most Sundays, the small Catholic com munity in Pheonix, Arizona, gathers after mass for a modest meal and a good talk. At one of these informal gatherings I recently had the pleasure of meeting UNWLA President Iryna Kurowyckyj and quickly discovered that we had something in common. When I mentioned that I recently worked for two years in Russia, Mrs. Kurowyckyj expressed a great interest in the population I worked with because she had the same story to tell: accounts of solidarity with our sisters in Russia, the women of Chechnya. Here, I can only tell my side of the story. When I arrived in Nazran, Ingushetia, to begin my work as coordinator of an education and community program for an international emergency aid or ganization, I was particularly welcomed because my family was from Ukraine. Many of the people I met expressed, implicitly or explicitly, the bond they feel to Ukrainians. They particularly recounted how during the great famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, Ukrainians migrated as far as Ingushetia and Chechnya; one man told of people who were found lying in the fields near his village, dying of starvation. Helped by the people in the village, they eventually settled there and even intermarried. These stories touched my heart; the Chechens and Ingush who helped suffering Ukrainians were themselves no strangers to suffering. In the two years I spent working with Chechen people, I was gratified by how warmly they welcomed me into their community. I later found that my presence there had created another bond. Within our own Ukrainian-American com munity in Seattle, Washington, people were sud denly asking my parents on a regular basis how their daughter’s work with the Chechen people was going, what was happening to them now. I was amazed at how well Ukrainians understand, especially the older generation, what the Chechens are experiencing. In Phoenix, this bond of understanding was reinforced when Mrs. Kurowyckyj recounted to me how she has met with Chechen women at various international fora on women’s issues. Her comments clearly showed an understanding of their plight and the discrimination they still experience. During our conversation, we agreed that Chechen and Ukrainian women have much in common. Women of both nations are struggling to provide for their children and families a decent life, hope for the future, education, and freedom from injustice and corruption. Both Chechnya and Ukraine have shared a history of terrible oppression, subjugation, deportation, and mass extermination; both nations knew the curse of Stalin. Today, many of their values are the same. Like Ukrainians, Chechens treasure their customs and traditions that they are fighting not to lose, they have preserved their religious practices through years of suppression, and they have fought to preserve their respective languages. Education means everything to them. Economic misery is well- known to them. I have left my dear Chechen female friends now, but I constantly think about reuniting with them when I move to Ukraine later this year, closer to them once more. These are people who risk their lives every day, either in Chechnya or crossing the border to visit their beloved Grozny, where bombings, kidnapping, and shootings are a way of life. Working in Ukraine, again with non governmental organizations, I’m sure I’ll encounter in the lives of Ukrainian women heavy burdens and crushing disappointment. But I also know I will encounter in the women of Ukraine the same resourcefulness, the same generosity, the same spirit that never gives up. Women cannot afford to give up; the love they have for their children will not let them. Life is not easy in Ukraine or in Chechnya; for women, it is often particularly difficult. But for all women, there is strength to be derived just from knowing that we have many sisters in the world. Remembering this makes each of us stronger. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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