The largest mass protests in Belarus' history, unfolding right now, could be called a women's revolution.
Events, which have jeopardised dictator-president Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year rule, are being driven by three women, including presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Female demonstrators played a crucial role in street protests.
And women with flowers helped pause police brutality.
The protests were triggered by a rigged election on 9 August, in which Lukashenko declared himself the landslide winner.
There is evidence his victory was faked.
And Tikhanovskaya's success - there are signs she won the vote - came as a surprise for the sexist leader.
His election commission, which had shut down all his other opponents, only registered her because Lukashenko did not think a woman posed a threat
.
But against all odds, the 37-year old Tikhanovskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, galvanised public mutiny.
"She was transformed from an ordinary woman into the symbol of the protest movement," Belarusian journalist Anna Baraban told EUobserver.
Read more at:
How a women's revolution is testing Belarus dictator
Events, which have jeopardised dictator-president Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year rule, are being driven by three women, including presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Female demonstrators played a crucial role in street protests.
And women with flowers helped pause police brutality.
The protests were triggered by a rigged election on 9 August, in which Lukashenko declared himself the landslide winner.
There is evidence his victory was faked.
And Tikhanovskaya's success - there are signs she won the vote - came as a surprise for the sexist leader.
His election commission, which had shut down all his other opponents, only registered her because Lukashenko did not think a woman posed a threat
.
But against all odds, the 37-year old Tikhanovskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, galvanised public mutiny.
"She was transformed from an ordinary woman into the symbol of the protest movement," Belarusian journalist Anna Baraban told EUobserver.
Read more at:
How a women's revolution is testing Belarus dictator
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