Fifa World Cup: Russian women push back at shaming over dating foreign fans after ‘whores’ jibe in tabloid
Women who have dated visiting football fans have been shamed by some Russian commentators, denounced for supposedly undermining country’s morals and gene pool
Hundreds of thousands of foreign men have flooded into Russia for the month-long World Cup, setting off a fierce debate in the host nation about the roles and rights of women.
Russian women who have dated the football fans have been shamed by some Russian commentators, denounced for supposedly undermining the country’s morals and gene pool.
The widespread, vehement criticism has shown the dominance of patriarchal and sexist views in Russia, where the concept of gender equality is a generation behind that of the West’s.
Still, the reaction against Russian women’s World Cup dalliances has been so strong that some feminists in Russia think it could actually advance their cause by shocking even conservative women who wouldn’t identify themselves as feminists.
“Even those women [are saying] ‘Enough is enough, you’ve gone too far!” feminist writer Snezhana Gribatskaya said.
A 27-year-old Moscow beautician named Mariam was one of those who fell for a foreign visitor, a Mexican football fan named Omar who asked her for directions to Red Square.