orenstein9_Natalia FedosenkoTASS via Getty Images_belaruselectiontsikhanouskaya Natalia Fedosenko/TASS via Getty Images

Will Women Overthrow Europe’s Last Dictator?

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Since 1994, Belarus’s quinquennial presidential election spectacles have invariably begun with hope for change, only to end with opposition candidates jailed and Aleksandr Lukashenko re-elected by a wide margin. But maybe – just maybe – not this year.

PHILADELPHIA – Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus’s first and only president since 1994, claims to love women. But, like most conservative dictators in the former Soviet bloc, he thinks they have a specific role in society, as mothers or arm candy. In his bid for a sixth consecutive term on August 9, Lukashenko may find that he underestimated Belarusian women, a triumvirate of whom are gunning for his job.

https://prosyn.org/A7ZGUgn