The Women's Network Croatia held a counter-rally in Zagreb's main square on Saturday while a group of men from the association "Be Manly" were holding a prayer in the square, noting that the event should have been banned.

This is the first time a larger rally was held in the city’s main square against the men who have been gathering in the main square every first Saturday in the month, to pray, among other things, for “women to dress and behave modestly”, as part of the “Be Manly” project of the Catholic association “Croatia for Life”.

“The men’s request for the restoration of their authority in the family is retrograde, unconstitutional and anti-civilisational,” the Women’s Network Croatia said in a statement for the media.

It noted that a rally calling for the submission of women and discrimination against them should be banned and that the purpose of the counter-rally is to show that it does not tolerate interference in women’s decisions about their sexual life or the way they dress.

The concurrent gatherings of the praying men and the protesting women lasted an hour and ended peacefully.

On one end of the square, the praying group, consisting mostly of men, participated in a Mass that could be heard on loudspeakers.

The participants in the counter-rally displayed banners telling the praying group they should “pray in private”. “No God, No Master”, “Civilisational Repression – Somebody’s Impotence”, were some of the messages that could be seen. Some of the protesting women wore black head scarves, which at one point they took off and threw on the ground in a show of protest.

The counter-protesters came close to the praying group several times, displaying an LGBT flag, to which security guards for the praying group surrounded the group so that they do not see the flag.

Artist Arijana Lekic-Fridrih, together with the Domino association, held a performance “Silent Mass”, telling reporters it was high time someone said who actually organised the praying men.

“You are aware that the Vigilare association is behind these people, and behind Vigilare is the Polish association Ordo Iuris, which played a key role in banning abortion in Poland,” said Lekic-Fridrih.

“The Polish scenario will not happen in Croatia and we will fight for the rights already won by our mothers and grandmothers,” she said, adding that she hoped the competent institutions would respond.

Support for the counter-rally was expressed by an SDP official and member of the European Parliament, Predrag Matic.

“With all the women that are killed and beaten on a daily basis, their biggest concern is how women in Croatia dress,” he said in a comment on the praying men.

Workers’ Front: Right to abortion must be included in Constitution

Men advocating retraditionalisation, patriarchy and restriction of women’s freedoms, even in the form of ostensibly humble kneeling, is the worst social extremism and yet another proof that the right to abortion must be included in the Constitution, the Workers’ Front (RF) party said in a comment on the praying men.

There should be no tolerance for the intolerant ones, the party said.

“In all the countries where such retrograde phenomena and ideas have gained strength a ban on abortion has been introduced, which is what the men praying in Zagreb’s central square demand. Participating in this campaign for the restriction of civic freedoms and retraditionalisation of society are also members of a chapter of the Polish extremist organisation Ordo Iuris. We have had enough of only defending ourselves from these regressive phenomena, we need to launch a counterattack,” the RF said.

Emancipation of women, equality of all people, the right of women to decide about their own body should be promoted, and those ideas and freedoms should be “carved into the Constitution”, the party said, noting that restoring the right to abortion in the Constitution was a necessary safeguard against further restriction of women’s rights, happening in parallel with the privatisation of the health system and abortion being increasingly unavailable due to conscientious objection.

The RF also believes that advocacy of ultraconservative ideas “goes hand in hand with denial of the right to public education, health care and social protection.”

“That is why we call on women to join our initiative in the largest possible numbers, as well as the political opposition and all progressive forces that should unite to organise a referendum to restore the right to abortion in the Constitution,” the RF said.