Deputy Nina Ostanina called the views of priest Andrei Tkachev "backward", who believed that modern women have embarked on the "path of madness"

State Duma deputy Nina Ostanina criticized Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, who called women who strive for equal rights with men insane.

Recently, during his sermon, Tkachev stated that women should be content with domestic life and caring for children, rather than trying to occupy responsible positions in power and compete with men.

“Why does a woman need power? What does she need in this power that would warm her and make her feel good? It’s some kind of disease, some kind of infection, some kind of misfortune that women would be deputies of different convocations, sit somewhere, tie up papers. Why do you need this happiness? If you are loved, you have children, do you have nothing else to do?” the priest shared his opinion.

He complained that since the 19th century we have “unluckily found ourselves in such a period of history” when women demand “equal rights with men, voting rights.” In Tkachev’s opinion, it was better before, because women were required to be a family doctor, not call an ambulance, be able to feed a family of five from two handfuls of millet groats and a piece of lard, alter old clothes so that the husband would walk around in new ones, and also clean and create comfort. Such women, Tkachev believes, were pious, while a sinful woman “can’t live in the house.”

Speaking about equal rights, Tkachev noted with a smile that women have achieved what they wanted, because now they lay asphalt and fight in the boxing ring: “Rights in full swing. They do everything that men do and think that it is good.” The archpriest concluded that “someone pushed the woman onto the path of madness.” “She wants to do everything that a man does, and compete with him, and compete with him, to run faster than a man, fly into space with a man, earn more than a man and exercise power with a man,” he said condemningly.

Nina Ostanina, who is the head of the Duma Committee for the Protection of the Family, responded to the priest in a conversation with the publication "Podyom". She said that Tkachev remained "in the century before last" and does not understand that a woman has a special view of things that should be taken into account.

"I regret that Mr. Tkachev did not familiarize himself with the results of international studies: a 30 percent presence of women in politics provides 20 percent of social issues to the agenda. So why do women need politics? To protect children, themselves and men, because in pursuit of solving geopolitical issues, sometimes male politicians do not see what is under their feet," Ostanina said.

She emphasized that dictating “backward views” to a secular state is “the day before yesterday,” and advised the archpriest to pay attention to how “delicately Patriarch Kirill is engaged in politics together with female State Duma deputies.” “For example, we passed a law banning surrogacy for foreigners, and without the support of the Patriarchal Commission and Patriarch Kirill personally, we would not have passed it,” the deputy recalled.

Earlier, at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, Nina Ostanina stated that the law on domestic violence should under no circumstances be adopted during the Year of the Family.