Rebellion of the Witches in Poland

Rebellion of the Witches in Poland

By: Erreh Svaia

“Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place.”

Nicolaus Copernicus

Honestly I don't believe in witchcraft, although I heard plenty of scary stories about it as a kid, but I do believe in witches, how could that be possible, you may ask yourself?, well, witches in the middle ages were women who for crave knowledge, for freedom and the desire to transcend the limitations set by men on them, when those women started to learn how to read, they became a threat to manhood, it was "against the nature", "against god", women could not be "equal" to man, that was "heresy", after all, god is a man, supposedly.

When my little girls ask me about witches, I tell that witches exist, I tell them to be witches, to defy what society has designed for them, to read a lot, to be thirsty for knowledge, to know that they are equal to man and capable of doing anything they desire to, even better than man.

For defying man and god, those women were burned at the stake by the holy inquisition, the farthest right wing party of all, the church didn't want women to learn and to develop any skills either besides cooking and taking care of children, they viewed women inferior to man, and whoever contradicted that, had to surely have a pact with the devil, fortunately, witches have done a lot to change this,  Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Virginia Woolf, Emma Goldman, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Patti Smith, Nina Simone, Ayn Rand, Edith Piaf, Yoko Ono all of them were witches, and they changed the world, if you are a woman, be also a witch and change the world.

Poland became a European icon of freedom fight, of liberty in the middle of totalitarian times, Poland fought bravely against two big menaces, Nazism and communism, Poland is also the homeland of Nicholas Copernicus, a man who pushed science to the limit and was attacked again by the church, a big presence in Poland, where it helped society defeat communism, but these days, the church along the conservative party Law and Justice, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, seems to be imposing moral restrictions on society, especially on women, by pushing forward a law criminalizing abortion under almost any circumstance, even victims of rape, or miscarriage could been prosecuted under this new law proposal, making women on such desperate cases turn to clandestine clinics where their lives are obviously at great risk, or forcing them to practice home abortion, thus the infamous symbol of the coat hanger, a reminder of what used to happen in the past to women in such conditions.

But witches are strong, witches are united and witches are smart, I do believe that the capability of showing solidarity among women easily excels that of men, just look at prisons, were women try to adapt and make good relationships, while we guys simply become caged animals at each other throats.

Polish women paralyzed the country, dressed in black, they all went on strike against an absurd and unfair law, and the goal was achieved, as the government decided to discard such initiative, recognizing women's will and desire, and their right to decide on their bodies, this is another historical triumph of Polish people against authoritarianism, and it means a lot these days as countries like Hungary and Poland seems to be moving towards the illiberal nature of a totalitarian country like Russia, where "morals" are the excuse to severely attack civil rights.

In real life, being a witch is not bad, is fighting for their rights in an oppressive man's world, as James Brown said, fortunately, as Bob Dylan said: "the times they are a changing", we are watching women changing the world in Germany, the UK, Scotland, Norway and we could be very close to witness a woman assuming the presidency in the most powerful nation on earth.