Moldovian city planner Constanța Dohotaru: Our cities are patriarchy cut in stone!

According to Moldovan urban planner and architect Constanța Dohotaru, Russia’s homophobic and misogynistic propaganda is rampant in Moldova. In an interview with Hille Hanso, she also talks about the situation of women, minorities and refugees, as well as urban planning, which currently reminds us at every step that women are second-class citizens.

Please give an intro to what you do and what led you to be the “outspoken feminist” (as you’ve been described by renowned Estonian journalist Marian Männi, who is based in Moldova) in a country where women’s and minority rights are not something that could be easily taken for granted?

Chişinău and the patriarchal attitudes in Moldova made me a feminist once I came back to my home country in 2017 after studying abroad. There was no day that would pass without me being reminded that I am a woman and the rules are different for me. It was normal for me and my girlfriends to be reminded that we were expected to reproduce and marry; street harassment was such an ordinary thing that happened almost every day, at least in minor ways.

I felt I was a “secondary” person in my professional life as well, as there are almost no women among architects in Moldova. In the architecture companies in Moldova, women are kept in lower management. There are just a few exceptions to women-led architecture studios or women’s voices in this area of public life.

Working in a male-dominated sphere came with many weird situations that were obviously related to my gender. For example, there was no bin in the toilet, as I was the only menstruating person in the office. So I had to take my tampons hidden in toilet paper and my pocket to the kitchen bin.

I was still young when I decided to stop this path and go into the NGO sector, but also join protest movements (like the Occupy Guguță movement). I couldn’t imagine growing up as a professional in the deeply corrupted field of construction, earning money in an envelope, being heavily underpaid (225 EUR/month), and hearing sexist jokes mixed with undesired flirting from male colleagues.

I started joining the March 8 Women’s March, something I never did in other European cities I have lived in, as I had never felt so angry. Yes, anger is the state of being when you have to adapt to a place designed by and for men with no regard to your needs as the “other sex”. I also started going to Pride events when I noticed most of my queer friends preferred to move out of the country to be able to live as they felt and not get beaten on the streets.

It’s amazing when you think that women make up 52% of Moldova’s population and that we are a disregarded and discriminated against “minority”, because of the deep patriarchy well established in our society and powered by Russia.

What should the reader know about Moldovan society and its cultural and political set-up?

Moldova is a new country that has existed only since 1991, with a fragilely developing democracy and citizens who are still learning what it means. As in the last century, there were many fights for our territory, and they still go on in the 21st century. Now, the Russian imperialist invasion is not physically on our territory, but they finance a lot of destabilisation movements by shady, corrupt individuals and parties, along with misogynistic and homophobic discourse. One can see the same things happening in Georgia, Armenia, or Ukraine before the February 24, 2022, invasion. At the moment, we have a government and parliament based on democratic values and a pro-European woman president, Maia Sandu. This is a great success for us, as in 2016, she lost to a pro-Russian, homophobic, and misogynistic president, Igor Dodon, mostly because some people couldn’t imagine a woman in such a role.

It’s amazing when you think that women make up 52% of Moldova’s population and that we are a disregarded and discriminated against “minority”, because of the deep patriarchy well established in our society and powered by Russia.

Until 2019, an oligarch—Vladimir Plahotniuc—controlled the country, and when he lost the elections, he had to flee the country. But his gangs and influence are still present. We have a deeply corrupt law system, making it impossible to have a fair trial and feel safe.

Since Maia Sandu is leading the country, we have a great example of female courage and success. Though she doesn’t present herself as a feminist, her discourses are sensitive around gender violence topics, and we have a decent women’s empowerment message from her each year on the 8th of March. You cannot even imagine how bad it was with the previous president, who wished us to be gentle with the man’s glaze and to be useful for them.

Still, this is often used by patriarchs as an argument that we have reached gender equality once a woman managed to become a president. So we still have a long way to go before we deconstruct another myth.

Estonia is sharing with Moldova this traumatic Soviet past. What legacy has it left there in terms of social and gender/minority relations?

The Soviet occupation since WW2 has tried to erase our identity, especially in terms of language and alphabet, religion, and ethnicity. It is believed that thanks to the rural areas and women, we managed to keep them and go back to them immediately after leaving the USSR.

Today, we do have antidiscrimination and anti-bullying laws in place, but there is still a long way to go. Russia never let us go and invaded the Transnistria region in 1990, still occupying the territory with its army and full-scale propaganda. Sadly, its propaganda doesn’t stop at the checkpoints; it is spread throughout Moldovan society. It uses human-rights-violating topics like homophobia, racism, and misogyny while promoting a toxic example of a “traditional family”. 

Still, this is often used by patriarchs as an argument that we have reached gender equality once a woman managed to become a president. So we still have a long way to go before we deconstruct another myth.

Much of it comes from homophobic Soviet time laws and mentalities. Our same-sex couples cannot get married, adopt together, visit their loved ones in hospitals, get proper medical care, etc.

Just like Estonia, we have been very empathetic with Ukrainian refugees, offering our houses and donating what was needed in the first weeks of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Many international journalists have asked me why we are so eager to help the Ukrainians, and I think it’s because we still remember our grandparents’ stories of GULAGS and Soviet prosecutions.

The Roma community has been disregarded, though, along with other unprivileged communities. It has been very visible during the invasion; e.g., the Roma refugees have not been welcomed by people in their houses as the Ukrainians have been.

Coming Out campaign gathering. Foto: Constanța Dohotaru private collection

According to the UN, women in Moldova face specific education and labour market barriers. Persistent patriarchal attitudes limit their educational choices and employment options. Women also face discriminatory practices. These include significant wage disparities, segregation into lower-paying occupations, unequal sharing of work and family responsibilities, and limited access to childcare. Would you please speak of trends—in which areas do you see improvement, where are things lagging, and why?

Something I can mention is a better visibility of the oppression we are facing in our patriarchal society. There are more and more active women who are trying to make a change in their man-led fields, such as IT, politics, engineering, design, science, and others. Some of the fields lack women in general, and no one notices.

Another big success was the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, for which we fought for years. Now that the implementation period is at hand, hopefully there will be results in a few years.

But we already have a father’s leave after a birth, which is short but still a beginning. We have gender quotes in the lists of political parties, so we make sure the MPs are close to 50/50 male/female. By law, they have to use female versions of the profession names, which initially created a huge scandal but is being used more and more now.

There are many stereotypes regarding the “traditional” role the woman needs to fulfill in the family — “A good wife obeys her husband even if she does not agree”, some being even more dangerous, like “Domestic violence is a private matter and must be resolved within the family”.

We have many feminist journalists and activists who fight for change day by day and organize protests when necessary. But there are many things that are still not tackled enough: obstetric and gynaecological violence, street harassment, cyber harassment, lower wages by 14% for women, 79% of women having faced violence in their lives, girl’s abuse in the family, etc.

What are the stereotypes that are not easily disappearing?

The worst and most dangerous stereotypes are around violence against women and victim blaming: “Violence against women is often caused by the victim”. Rape survivals women hear comments like “she must have asked for it”, “she should have dressed more decently,”, “she should have stayed at home”, etc. There are many stereotypes regarding the “traditional” role the woman needs to fulfill in the family — “A good wife obeys her husband even if she does not agree”, some being even more dangerous, like “Domestic violence is a private matter and must be resolved within the family”. These are the thoughts of around 50% of the Moldovan population, according to the “Women’s Welfare and Safety” study by OSCE done in 2019.

You have specialised on a specific topic, feminist urban planning, which places women’s experiences at the heart of urban planning and design side by side with men’s. With an emphasis on women’s direct participation, it takes into account the multiplicity of differences within them, such as age, class, caste, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, sexuality, and marital status, among others. Please, can you elaborate on who has control over designing the cities and whose face the urban environments bear in Moldova?

MEN. MEN. MEN. Chişinău, as any other city, was built by and for men. As historically, women have had access to education only for the past 100 years (and even then, as a minority of women), they have not had a chance to participate in decision-making. Our cities are patriarchies cut in stone.

Women in Moldova (and not only there) use the city differently than men. She does not just travel from point A to point B; she goes to the supermarket, kindergarten, or school, passes by a clinic, picks up something she ordered, visits her elderly relatives, and takes care of the cats. This makes her spend more time commuting in the unfriendly public structure, which is not adapted to her needs.

Women need good public transportation and pedestrian connections, as they use cars less than men. A woman needs shaded streets in summer and lightened streets in winter. She needs places to take kids to so she can rest as well. She needs to feel safe walking anywhere at any hour and be able to relax and not worry whether she will get home safely.

There have been no women mayors in Chişinău, and at the moment the person leading the city government, Ion Ceban, is a pro-Russian homophobic misogynist who is opposing the governing party. Year by year, he is trying (with no luck) to stop our PRIDE and has fought the activists in a very toxic manner. If you follow him, you could get the impression he is still in the middle ages, calling people to duels.

On the other hand, all that is done in our city lately is done in a very superficial way. The real infrastructural changes are not so popular, so they are avoided, and instead, something fast and kitschy takes their place. The city government has transparency issues, and the public consultations are faked or avoided. Chişinău is over-constructed, and things can get worse if there is no legal way to stop them.

Constanța Dohotaru is a board member of the only LGBT rights NGO in the Republic of Moldova — GENDERDOC-M — and research NGO PLATZFORMA (“Platform”). She is also a member of the “Moldova for Peace” initiative and the Gender Equality Platform in Moldova. Among institutions, she collaborates with the young artists’ NGO Oberliht in Moldova, the summer school Viadrinicum at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder, and different feminist networks, including those in the Eastern European region.

What cities would you bring out as good examples in terms of gender-sensitive planning?

I would be able to talk only about the cities I’ve experienced, and I have to admit there is no perfect example, as everywhere I’ve heard the phrase “text me when you get home” when leaving a dinner or party. Still, for example, Vienna is a city that takes women’s safety and comfort seriously and has a dedicated city hall department. Municipal Department 57—Vienna Women’s Affairs (MA 57) is responsible for the promotion and coordination of women’s issues. The Austrian capital has been pioneering ‘gender mainstreaming’ for nearly 30 years. “Gender mainstreaming” is the practice of ensuring women and men are accounted for equally in policy, legislation, and resource allocation.

Women need good public transportation and pedestrian connections, as they use cars less than men. A woman needs shaded streets in summer and lightened streets in winter. She needs places to take kids to so she can rest as well. She needs to feel safe walking anywhere at any hour.

What they did was invite women architects to design spaces and buildings (before that, only 6% of specialists were women), and they also took gender into consideration while designing. This was such a simple thing to do, yet revolutionary, and it is still not done in Moldova. They mapped the real needs of women in a city and started adapting to them: more lighting in the evening, wider sidewalks, more pedestrian areas, more sitting places on the way, more accessible ramps and elevators for mothers—you get the point. One doesn’t need to rebuild the city from scratch; it’s just important to call women to the consultations of the project and include them in the planning so the details are comfortable and accessible for them.

Once we make the city accessible for the less privileged, we make it accessible for all. Also, we need to talk and be specific, as when we speak about everyone, we speak about no one.

Would you agree that feminist urbanism strengthens our democracies?

Yes, freedom of movement and safety are basic human rights. In an unsafe, unfair, and inaccessible city, women’s basic human rights are violated, thus making them feel disregarded and tired.

We need women involved in the needs assessment phase; we need to consult women and involve them in the design process; and we need gender and age-segregated data before making any changes in the city. Only this could be considered a real democracy.

What are your platforms (please talk about your podcast and vlog), and who are your allies and friends in politics?

I started the vlog and podcast “Omul face locul” (We shape the space) during the pandemic, when most of the urban projects were on hold for obvious reasons. After a full year of content and learning through doing, the Russian offence started, and it all seemed irrelevant for a year. As the platform is crowdfunded, I put it on hold and waited. Mariana Agleanov and Clara Abdullah have joined the team, and we are now three in this rodeo, making it a bit easier and fun at the same time.

Freedom of movement and safety are basic human rights. We need women involved in the needs assessment phase; we need to consult women and involve them in the design process. In an unsafe, unfair, and inaccessible city, women’s basic human rights are violated.

There are many topics I touch upon, such as “What is a Feminist City?”, “Pedestrian City,”, “Parking Heaven,” an analysis of public spaces in Chişinău; we talked about the architecture university in Moldova and compared it with European ones; and many others. Our last series was done in collaboration with n’ost, Unit, and was called “I am queer, but am I safe?”—a series of interviews with open queer people from Chişinău, describing their experiences in public spaces in Chişinău.

What is the mission of LAOLALTĂ?

LAOLALTĂ means “together”. Our mission is to develop programs and projects that capacitate citizens to do community mobilization in good cooperation with Public authorities and with mutual accountability. Our values are solidarity, compassion, involvement, teamwork, gender equality, and non-discrimination. We founded the NGO during the pandemic, in 2020, as a result of a civic initiative called “Together against Covid” — we coordinated over 500 volunteers to help deliver food and needed products to the vulnerable people who couldn’t go out.

The first project was DVOR, and it’s still going on; soon the 3rd edition will start. In DVOR, we support the local informal leaders doing community organising in their long-forgotten courtyards and, by passing some training and winning a mini-grant, implementing a change based on the needs researched together with the neighbours.

Since the beginning of the war, we got involved in the initiative “Moldova for Peace,” offering support to people fleeing to Moldova from the Russian invasion in Ukraine. We opened the Community Center 151—a safe space for women and children from Moldova and Ukraine, a day center where they can receive a psychological session or legal advice, along with many integrational and recreational activities. This center is supported by UNHCR, and some activities are supported by the Foundation du France and the Black Sea Trust. Together with them, we are launching Community Centers in the North (Donduşeni) and South (Caușeni, Cahul, and Comrat).

The March 8 march passed by the Russian embassy. “Feminists against Russian imperialism” says the poster. Photo: Constanța Dohotaru private collection

Volunteer Academy is a project promoting safe volunteering and the voluntar.md platform, spreading the skill to all ages and interested people so that, in a crisis, our society could organise itself better. Our Info Unit spreads verified information to the refugee and hosting community, also monitoring rumours and hate speech around the refugee crisis. We also assist people requesting transportation on the dopomoha.md platform, all developed within the Moldova for Peace Initiative.

What advice would you have for city planners in Estonia?

The advice is to go into the community, to the site, and talk to people locally. Have separate meetings with girls, women, boys, men, the elderly, and people with special needs; find the queer community; talk to each and every one; and map the REAL needs of people. Involve them in the planning and designing process; make yourself and them accountable. Be a fair bridge between the authorities or investors money and the people.