The GEA Times Commentary - Anastasia Ulturgasheva

By Anastasia Ulturgasheva, Arctic researcher

Experiences of indigenous young women living in remote villages in Siberia are drastically different from their peers living in urban areas and mainland Russia. Their experiences are often coloured by multiple forms of discrimination – racism, ethnic chauvinism.

Othering – that directly and indirectly affect their well-being and quality of life. Low living standards, high unemployment rates, unreliable transport/air communication, fragile infrastructures and impoverished livelihoods mark the contemporary reality of rural indigenous communities in Siberia. Numerous reviews of socio-economic situation and well-being of Siberian Arctic tend to overlook gender related issues and are rarely discussed in-depth in public reports. The latest social science reviews of gender-related issues in Siberia mainly revolve around urban areas and experiences of dominant ethnic groups living in the cities.

The issues which are being silenced and publicly supressed are linked to misogyny, racism and sexual violence against indigenous women. As in other parts of the Arctic, including Alaska, Canada and Greenland, indigenous young women are exposed to damaging stereotypes that are framed by externally imposed projections of gender aimed at reproduction of colonial patriarchy and systems of dominance. One of such stereotypes revolves around young women’s low socio-economic status and sexuality. As a result of such stereotypes they are more likely to be harassed and sexually assaulted. The widespread practice of blaming the victim for a sexual assault makes the situation only worse because violence against women is one of the most acute problems in Russia. Such practice has been given even more social acceptance recently due to the Russian government’s policy that decriminalized domestic violence in February 2017.

I hope that the Icelandic Chairmanship will encourage and facilitate detailed consideration of gender equality and other gender related issues – gender-based violence, sexual harassment, women’s reproductive health and rights – at the Arctic Council. The Gender Equality in the Arctic project should become an important milestone for thorough and much more complex understanding of gender issues in the Arctic.