Supermodel Natalia Vodianova has ignited a firestorm of discussion about the rights of the disabled in her native Russia after her autistic sister was kicked out of a Nizhny Novgorod cafe by the owner, who allegedly accused her of scaring customers away.

In an August 12 Facebook post, Vodianova wrote that her 27-year-old sister Oksana, who has been diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy, and Oksana’s caretaker stopped at the cafe the previous day to seek respite from the heat.

After the caretaker ordered a snack for Oksana, Vodianova wrote, the owner of the cafe approached the two women and told them: “Why don’t you leave? You’re scaring away all of our customers. Go get medical help for you and your child. And then go out in public.”

While Vodianova’s mother was on the way to the cafe to intervene, a security guard threatened to “call the crazy house” and “lock you in the cellar” if the two women did not leave the premises, she wrote.

After her mother left the cafe with Oksana and the caretaker, they were confronted by police who told them they were being “detained for minor hooliganism,” wrote Vodianova, 33, who runs charities aimed at helping underprivileged and disabled children in Russia. 

A local police spokesperson was quoted later by Interfax as saying that “both participants in the conflict filed complaints against one another” over alleged insults and that police are looking into the incident.

The spokesperson partially corroborated Vodianova’s account, saying that “Oksana wanted something to drink” but that the owner instead asked her and her caretaker to “leave the establishment.”

Vodianaova’s Facebook post surged through social media and traditional news outlets in Russia, where rights activists say disabled people continue to face numerous obstacles to societal integration. 

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that people with disabilities people in Russia consistently encounter discrimination by employers, poor health care, and inadequate opportunities for education.

In a report last year, HRW said the Russian government has made some progress in efforts to help disabled children but that more needs to be done.

As RFE/RL reported at the time, the HRW report found “that nearly 30 percent of all Russian children with disabilities are removed from their parents and live in state orphanages, where they face neglect and sometimes violence. 

“In Russia, when a child is born with a disability, parents face pressure from doctors to give their children up. Children end up in orphanages, where they may face serious abuse and neglect,” said the report’s author, Andrea Mazzarino.

The Paris-based Vodianova, a regular on billboards and fashion magazine covers who has modeled for iconic global brands like Calvin Klein and Gucci, told the U.S. magazine Glamour last year that her mother refused to give Oksana up and that she pursued a modeling career to help provide for her struggling family. 

Vodianova’s account of the incident at the Nizhny Novgorod cafe was shared more than 13,000 times and garnered more than 34,000 likes on Facebook within hours after it was posted on August 12.

She said she decided to go public with the incident because “this is not an isolated case.”

“Unfortunately, this is the reality experienced by all families raising children with special needs,” she wrote. “It’s difficult for me to discuss this, but I understand that this is an alarm bell for society that must be heard.”

–Carl Schreck
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