Palazhanka: A woman's heart belongs to her family in first place

120307 Palazanka_site_0.mp3

Euroradio: How does a girl of your age feel in politics?

Nasta Palazhanka: It is quite uneasy for me in the Belarusian politics as we do not have the politics we would like to have so far. However, practically, I think both a woman and a man can develop equally in any sphere of the civil and political life. Everything depends on the goals, longings and talents of a person. I think that all the doors are open in front of anyone.

Euroradio: Don't you think that a man is taken more seriously in the beginning?

Nasta Palazhanka: Naturally, there is something like that. This is connected with our country's traditions, with certain stereotypes, which we inherited from the Soviet times. I would never say that a woman should set her career as the first priority, and I wouldn't say this about a man either. However, I really want to be of some use for this country and to do the things which would influence its destiny, I would like to have a big family with many children - I don't want to separate these concepts. If someone asks me what is more important, I will answer - family. This is indeed more important. A woman's heart has such call. However, no one says that women have no opportunities for personal development in other spheres, or have no talents, or no vocation for something else. I think that any woman is unique as she can wonderfully combine all this and even be ahead of many men if necessary.

Euroradio: Have you ever had any problems with men-politicians? Don't they prefer men in the same "Young Front"?

Nasta Palazhanka: Naturally, there have been moments like this. The "Young Front" is a rather conservative organization and the bosses never facilitated girls to play any leading roles. Such conservativeness is useful sometimes, but sometimes it's not. All this is a matter of deeds, of time. You reach the same level not because you prove something to someone but because you catch up with your talents. There is such a factor in the Belarusian politics - men think that this is "men's talk", a serious stuff which may cause harm to the weaker sex. But here we have a question - what is a weaker sex in politics? This totally depends on a person. As we have enough men who belong to the weaker sex in reality.

Euroradio: May be it would be better if our society wasn't so conservative and listened to women who have something to say but are deprived of an opportunity to take important decisions because of the "men's business" point of view?

Nasta Palazhanka: Conservatism is not a bad thing, when we look at some realities of the European Union. It's not an issue of the society's conservativeness - this is an issue of democracy in the society, of democracy in the people's views. It's whether you are interested in people who surround you, whether you listen to them and see what they can do, not how they look like. Therefore, it is important that women should not take offence at men's skepticism. If you can do something then go and do it. Also, when a woman gets ahead, it means that we started listening to the people at last. This is interesting for people of the consumer world also. They wonder how it happened, what this woman said or did to achieve that. This is a rather curious thing for the Belarusian reality, for the Belarusian politics. Just recall how the world watched Julia Tymoshenko during the Orange Revolution. This is indeed interesting. I mean, what is happening in a country when women go ahead and leave men behind. Maybe this is a problem in the society, and women have to get stronger, and maybe we have at last achieved some understanding of equality. However, I agree that it is more complicated for a woman to get started.

Euroradio: Do you believe that Belarus may have a woman-President?

Nasta Palazhanka: Yes, I absolutely believe in this and I am even convinced that it will happen.