Name: Iryna Suslova
Age: 28
Education: Economics, State Fiscal University of Ukraine
Profession: Lawmaker in Verkhovna Rada
Did you know? When Suslova became a lawmaker, she had to give Dzhyna, a dog that had lived with her for five years, to her parents, as she didn’t have time to take care of the pet.
Iryna Suslova heads the parliamentary subcommittee on gender equality and non-discrimination, working on several laws that would give women more rights in politics, military and education.
She also takes part in educating projects, aimed to fight gender stereotypes among Ukraine’s youth. Suslova searched for missing activists after the EuroMaidan Revolution. She was invited to join the Civic Lustration Committee, an organization launched to clean the state from officials loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.
Early parliamentary elections in 2014 brought Suslova to the parliament. She entered on the party list of Samopomich. She was kicked out after she voted for the appointment of Viktor Shokin as prosecutor general. Later she joined the leading faction of President Petro Poroshenko.
Suslova wants to ban discrimination against women who want to serve in the Ukrainian army. At the moment, women can’t serve as snipers, sappers or military drivers. They can work in the kitchen or medical department. Female soldiers, who still go to the war front on unofficial basis, are not eligible for benefits and official payment. Neither their families can ask for state financial support if the female soldier gets injured or killed on the duty.
Suslova as well wants to change the legislation on education that prevents girls from studying in cadet schools.
“We don’t ask for the mandatory quotas for women in army or in military schools. But give the person an opportunity to choose what to do,” Suslova said. “State’s functions are disrupted. The state has to provide services to its citizens, but it, on the contrary, only creates obstacles.”
Suslova does, however, stand for mandatory quotas for women, but in politics. She has co-written the draft law that does not allow the Central Election Commission to register a party if there is less than 40 percent of women on its list.
Another problem she is trying to solve is an outdated and slow process of public appeals to the officials. As it is now, it takes too much time, as there isn’t any joint system where officials would be able to transfer the received appeal to the responsible person, and they communicate via paper mail.
“Our task is to change this, to launch the unified system of electronic document flow,” she said, adding that it would increase the responsibility of the officials for dragging their feet on responding to the appeals of the citizens. With this new system, each person will be able to track his appeal online, knowing who is working on it.
