Marina Pisklakova-Parker

Marina Pisklakova-Parker
Nationality	Russian
Organization	ANNA
Known for	Anti-domestic violence activism
Awards	Global Leadership Award

Marina Pisklakova-Parker is a Russian women's rights activist and author. She is the first person to establish a women's crisis center to help victims of domestic violence in Russia.^[1][2][3][4]

Education and career[]

Pisklakova studied aeronautical engineering at Moscow Aviation Institute. She obtained a doctoral degree in Sociology from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. While conducting research at the Academy's Institute for Socio-Economic Studies of the Population, she came across a survey response from a woman describing maltreatment from her husband. Pisklakova was disturbed and called the center's director, who called it a case of domestic violence, which is a foreign term with no equivalent translation in Russian.^[5]

Not long after, while accompanying her child to school, Pisklakova ran into a mother with a bruised and swollen face. She inquired about it but the woman refused to answer. A few days later, the woman phoned Pisklakova and told her that his husband had struck her face with a shoe's heel for not stitching a button that had fallen off his suit quickly enough. Pisklakova asked the woman to leave her husband but she responded she had nowhere to go.^{[5][6] [7]}

Pisklakova decided to call the police to report the case. The authorities responded that it was a private matter and they could not interfere. Pisklakova sought for agencies and found out there were no institutions that addressed victims of domestic violence in Russia. She took the matter to her hands and contacted the head of a women's crisis center in Sweden. The director guided Pisklakova on how to establish the first women's crisis center in Russia.^[5][6]

ANNA[]

In 1993, Pisklakova founded ANNA (National Center for the Prevention of Violence), a hotline for women to report domestic abuse and receive assistance. Pisklakova formed ANNA alone and was the only one overseeing the telephone. She faced oppositions, such as being accused of aggravating matters, as evident on her first case when the police advised the husband to beat his wife quietly.^[5][7]

Pisklakova received additional funding six months later. She hired psychologists and lawyers, and rented a space to provide a shelter for the victims. She eventually provided trainings for those interested in working as counselors and for those interested in establishing women's crisis centers. As the organization grew they began working with the police force.^[5][7]

In 1997, Pisklakova started a program to train lawyers in handling cases of domestic abuse. Pisklakova also lobbied for a legislation that recognizes the facets of domestic violence, such as through economic control, psychological violence and marital sexual violence.^{[8][1][9][5][7]}

ANNA has over 40 branches throughout Russia. The organization works with more than 150 organizations to combat gender-based violence.^[10][4]

Selected works[]

• Marriages in Russia (1999) with Dana Vannoy, Natalia Rimashevskaya, Lisa Cubbins, Marina Malysheva, Elena Meshterkina^[11][12]
• Between Scream and Silence / Mezhdu molchaniem i krikom (2000)^[11]
• State of Fatherhood in Russia (2016)^[13]

References[]