WARSAW, Poland: About 1,000 people demonstrated against sexual violence in Warsaw on Wednesday after the death of a Belarusian immigrant shocked the Belarusian community in exile in Poland.
Liza, 25, who was identified only by her first name, died in hospital last week after being brutally attacked and sexually assaulted while walking at night in central Warsaw.
A 23-year-old man was later arrested and charged with the attack, but the attack angered women’s rights groups and a sizable community of Belarusians who fled the country to Poland.
Demonstrators lit candles and laid flowers as they gathered at the site of the attack to pay their respects.
“Liza came to Poland in search of a better life. And in Poland, her life was taken away from her,” the protest’s co-organiser, Maja Stasko, told crowd.
The participants, who were asked by organizers to wear black clothes, held placards with slogans in Belarusian and Polish such as “Women are not prey” and “I was just walking home”.
According to official data, Poland hosted nearly 80,000 Belarusians in 2023, many of whom had fled to neighboring countries fearing political repression at home.
“It was a pure shock for all of us,” a Belarusian working in IT in Poland, Anna, who declined to give her full name, told reporters of the attack.
“We fled from Belarus to search for peace here, and now we became victims of not the regime, but of men,” said the 25-year-old.
Belarusians who experience sexual violence abroad face additional barriers as asylum seekers, including distrust of law enforcement, organizers said.
“We have so much experience with the police that we can’t believe that if we call the police, they will believe us and someone will take action,” Belarusian activist Nasta Bazar told AFP.
“I really want all women to know that there are always women who support them and there are also organizations in Belarus that support them,” Bazar added.
The rally was also attended by women’s rights activists and participants from Ukraine, where EU member Poland is currently home to around 1 million refugees from war-torn countries.
