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# Pussy Riot Rocker Declares Prison Hunger Strike
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/pussy-riot-rocker-declares-prison-hunger-strike/
- Published: 2013-05-22T21:24:42.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:35:17.000Z
- Description: A member of the punk feminist group Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina, has declared a hunger strike after a Russian judge refused to allow her to personally attend a court hearing about her possible parole
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, Maria Alekhina, Pussy Riot, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![Maria Alekhina (via Wikipedia)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/05/320-maria_alekhina_pussy_riot.jpg)

Maria Alekhina (via Wikipedia)

A member of the punk feminist group Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina, has declared a hunger strike after a Russian judge refused to allow her to personally attend a court hearing about her possible parole, according to the [Associated Press](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/pussy-riots-maria-alekhina-declares-hunger-strike-in-prison-parole-hearing-adjourned/2013/05/22/1566c6c6-c2cd-11e2-9642-a56177f1cdf7%5Fstory.html?ref=hyperallergic.com).

Alekhina, who was watching the hearing remotely through a video link, ordered her defense team not to participate in the upcoming afterhearing that her request was denied.

According to [Russia Today](http://rt.com/news/alekhina-court-hunger-riot-624/?ref=hyperallergic.com):

> Following the announcement, the court ruled to postpone the parole hearing till May 23\. “I’m declaring a hunger strike and order my defense lawyers not to take part in this court trial,” Alekhina stated.

Alekhina and fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were [sentenced to two years](https://hyperallergic.com/pussy-riot-is-sentenced-to-2-years-in-prison-for-hooliganism/) in prison last August for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” after they and other members of the Pussy Riot collective performed an anti-Putin song unauthorized in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Samutsevich was [released](https://hyperallergic.com/one-pussy-riot-member-released/) after just six months, but [Tolokonnikova was denied bail last month](https://hyperallergic.com/pussy-riot-member-denied-early-release-for-dumb-reasons/).

The [*Hollywood Reporter*](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/imprisoned-russian-pussy-riot-member-527335?ref=hyperallergic.com) is reporting that:

> Pavel Chikov, head of human rights body Agora, said denying Alekhina the right to appear in person at a court so closer to where she is serving her sentence was an affront to her dignity.

And they added, in classic *Hollywood Reporter* style:

> In January HBO picked up US TV rights to *Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer,* a documentary about the group and its political activities by British filmmaker Mike Lerner and Russian Maxim Pozdorovkin that screened at Sundance.