"For me, feminism is not an abstract idea"

It is me standing before you, but, in reality, there are thousands of women here with me. Women who know what it means to fight. They know what it means to lose everything - their freedom, health, body, voice - but never themselves.

I know what it means to be locked up within four walls where they want to break you. Where they want you to stop being yourself. Where your body no longer belongs to you and your voice is muffled by the bars. I know what a system that hates women and fears them looks like, because women represent strength.

Belarus is a country where women took to the streets with flowers and were thrown into prison vans. Where you can be tossed into jail for wearing a white scarf. Where there is unbearable labour and endless humiliation in the prison camps because they want to make us submissive. Where female political prisoners are not just statistical numbers, but represent real fates, real names, real broken fingers, broken lives.

But being locked up doesn't mean we're giving up.

I am a feminist. And for me, feminism is not an abstract idea. It is a necessity. This is a fight for the right to speak, to love, to choose. This is a fight for those they want to silence, those who cannot escape, are in pain, are frightened, who think they are alone.

But we are not alone.

I know what it means not to have the right to your own body. I know what it means to be a woman that society wants to pigeonhole. Who is told: "You have no rights." To your voice, to love, to freedom.

I know what it means to be a lesbian in a country where your love is considered a crime. Where you can be beaten up because of the way you dress. Where your rights don't exist.

But we do exist. We existed and we will exist. We are many and we will not remain silent!

And today I am accepting this award and would like to say: I am here because there are women next to me who will not give up! Because there have always been people at my side who have fought. Because thousands of women continue to fight.

I would like to dedicate this award to all the women who are behind bars right now. To all those who were forced into exile. To all those who stayed and continue to resist. To all those who they tried to break, but who nevertheless persevered.

I don't know how much more time is needed before we can breathe freely. But I do know one thing: our fight is not a question of "if", but of "when".

Thank you.

» Speech in Russian (PDF)