Russian contemporary writers announce reading to support Khachaturyan sisters on trial for killing their abusive father

The murder case against the Khachaturyan sisters, who killed their father after facing years of constant emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at his hands, has drawn widespread attention from contemporary Russian writers from its inception. Women writers and especially women poets have played a central role in the public resistance to the case. On July 5 from 6:00 to 10:00 PM, sixty of those writers and poets will perform in a public reading at the Moscow club Avangarden 2.0.

According to the Facebook page for the event, the readers will include some of “the most prominent literary figures in contemporary Russia.” They include breakout contemporary novelists Anna Nemzer, Evgenia Nekrasova, and Olga Breininger; leading feminist writers like Galina Rymbu and Lida Yusupova; online literature innovator Linor Goralik; Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina; the award-winning poetry and prose writer Maria Stepanova; and many others. The event’s organizers include Darya Serenko, who has taken on a prominent role in recent demonstrations for the Khachaturyan sisters, and Oksana Vasyakina, who recently won Russia’s prestigious Lyceum Prize for her poetry.

Attendees will have the opportunity to write letters of support to the Khachaturyan sisters.

The case of the Khachaturyan sisters is among the most horrible tragedies that have followed from the absence of legal penalties for domestic violence. All year, women have taken the lead in supporting the sisters… But women’s voices are often left unheard, and victims have remained behind bars for defending themselves — for refusing to be killed. We want our voices and the voices of the Khachaturyan sisters to be heard not only in crime reports but in the cultural sphere. That’s because it is culture — a culture of violence — that underlies domestic violence and the rape and murder of women.