“This is not another political fight, it’s war in the defense of modern civilization and its major values.”
Marta Lempart is a Polish political activist, journalist, lawyer, and the initiator and one of the leaders of the Ogólnopolskiego Strajku Kobiet (National Women’s Strike).
Marta Lempart was born in Poland, graduated from Law, and soon after that, she started to work at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. During her time at the Ministry, she focused on disabled people and co-authored the act on sign language and other regulations in order to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
In 2015, the political party Prawa i Sprawiedliwości (Law and Justice) came to power. Martha became involved in the protests of the Committee for the Defense of Democracy. In 2016, after a draft tightening anti-abortion regulations, she called on Polish women to strike. A few days later, women demonstrated on the streets of 150 Polish cities, which was to convince PiS to freeze work on the project. Marta Lempart led the march in Wrocław. After that, she became the face and leader of the National Women’s Strike. She organized several protests and marches dealing with antiabortion regulations and against the concealment of pedophilia in the Catholic Church. The National Women’s Strikes have been one of the biggest women’s rights strikes and inspire a lot of activists from other countries who started to march and cooperate.
Marta Lempart is also very politically active. In 2018 she initiated the #GirlsDoWyborów campaign, which goal was to increase the participation and role of women in local self-government structures. She herself became a candidate in local government elections and elections to the European Parliament. In her election campaigns, she emphasized women’s rights, equality of women, LGBT + people, and people with disabilities.
In October 2020, the Polish government even more restricted abortion laws in Poland. Polish women started other mass strikes to protect the reproductive rights of women. Martha Lempart continues with her activism a leadership also in these strikes.
Poland, Europe, and the World nowadays need women like Martha Lempart like never before. We stand up with Poland, Martha, and their fight and we hope the change will be achieved!
Written by WAVE Intern Mária Trubanová
Sources:
https://www.rpo.gov.pl/pl/osoba/marta-lempart
https://www.vocaleurope.eu/polish-womens-rights-are-european-womens-rights/
