Poles Find Creative Ways to Protest Despite the Pandemic

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Along with obligatory face masks, the women sported clothing, bags, posters and banners festooned with familiar symbols of Poland's feminism movement: lightning bolts, umbrellas, clothes hangers, clenched fists and images of uteruses giving the finger.

Such symbols came to prominence in 2016 when an ultraconservative citizen's initiative sought to tighten Poland's abortion law, sparking mass demonstrations known as the Black Protest.

Four years later, another ultraconservative initiative is seeking once more to toughen the abortion law by banning terminations of malformed fetuses, which constitute the vast majority of legal abortions performed today.

The draft bill is in parliament thanks to a campaign that gathered almost a million signatures. A second draft law, meanwhile, could potentially introduce prison sentences for sex education teachers.

Both bills have the backing of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), which has put conservative social values at the heart of its political agenda.

The protest outside Cezar last Wednesday showed that Polish activists are finding unexpected ways to make their voices heard despite the government's draconian lockdown to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Under restrictions in place at the time of the protest, people were only allowed to leave the house to go to the shop, take a short walk or fulfill other "basic necessities of life". 

"Join the line in front of the Cezar shop, if you have to sort out a basic necessity of life," said an invitation to protest posted on a Facebook group...