Note: This interview transpired with the use of a translator.
Monika Kohut is a Polish activist specializing in vegan feminism. Although activism is not their fulltime career, Kohut assures: “Fighting for animal rights is the most important part of my life.” Kohut is the co-founder of W IMIĘ ZWIERZĄT (“On Behalf of the Animals”), a grassroots collective that represents a strictly vegan approach to animal liberation, an approach that is severely lacking in Poland she explains.
“Historically,” Kohut reflects, “I was feminist and it was later that I became a vegan.” In both instances, she emphasizes, the decision was made for ethical reasons. The connections between sexism and speciesism for Kohut were “pretty obvious.” Feminism and veganism, for her, are both matters of social justice. “Vegan feminism is my life,” she attests.
On International Women’s Day on March 8th 2025, Kohut’s organization demonstrated at Poland’s national feminist conference using the imagery of Margeret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale to draw connections between women’s and other animals’ oppression.
At first when I became a vegan it occurred to me that it should be obvious for all other feminists as well that these two things are related. That this enlightenment that I had would be just as natural for all other feminists.[…] Of course, this enlightenment, among other feminists, was something that just didn’t happen, so I felt I had to do something and I started spreading the vegan message among feminists.
At this protest, Kohut introduced the slogan: “There’s no real feminism without veganism”.
Intersectionality is important for Kohut who is involved in many social justice campaigns and works to integrate anti-speciesism wherever possible across movements. For instance, she takes advantage of mother’s day and children’s day to talk about animal issues. This may be controversial, she admits, but these opportunities are important for getting the message across. Kohut’s group has also had some success among queer communities in Krakow who seem a bit more open to the connections: “The reaction is rather positive to what we are trying to accomplish.” “My heart has always been with the people that were being discriminated against,” she adds, and “it’s important to remember that there are no rights that are forever granted to any of us.”
The political context of Poland however, has had a negative impact on the struggle for animal rights, particularly in lieu of constricting women’s rights. Unfortunately, this oppression has not created much illumination on similar processes impacting nonhuman animals. “It would seem that when women are getting their rights taken away from them, they would try harder to understand the rights of the females of other species,” Kohut reflects. Yet, “whenever vegan feminists try to talk about these things, they are usually being told that it’s not the right time to start connecting these things together.”
The Handmaid’s Tale imagery, however, has been effective in communicating vegan feminist ideas, she thinks: “In both instances we have the enslavement of the female, we have the rape connected to bringing a child into the world, so the analogy is extremely simple.” She sees this strategy as a promising way of prioritizing the experiences of the victims. Yet, she finds value in the tactics utilized by other vegan feminists. She is particularly impressed by the courage of activists who attach milking machines to themselves, demanding that humans drink their own milk.
The vegan message does not allow the feminist to remain the victim; they must also see their role as the oppressor. This complication, Kohut suggests, remains a barrier for many feminists hesitant to relinquish their privilege. The number of vegan feminists in Poland is small, but she is clear that, what they lack in numbers, they make up for in energy and determination.
I hope that I will live to see the moment when other women understand that what we are trying to accomplish is something that doesn’t really deprecate what they are doing. […] I always try to emphasis the fact that it’s not like we are trying to say which group has it worse than the other groups, it’s really not about that.
Kohut also dreams that one day soon, “men and women finally come to understand that, regardless of the species you belong to, we all feel the same way and we all hoe for a better future. […] without vegan feminism there is no chance of there being anything like true justice in the world.”
This interview was recorded on April 25, 2025. Follow W IMIĘ ZWIERZĄT on Instagram.