Platon

And consequently, they were sent to a Siberian prison for two years.

But what happens if we remove those colorful, aggressive masks?

You see something different.

This is Nadia and Masha, photographed after they were released from prison.

You can see the vulnerability on their faces.

You can see that they've paid a heavy price for their support of LGBTQ rights and women's rights in Russia.

Now, during their trial in the courtroom before jail, they were kept in a big cage as if they were wild animals.

Nadia,

the co-founder of Pussy Riot.

She was constantly scribbling handwritten notes on a scrappy piece of paper.

Eventually, the judge said to her, I want you to stand up and make your closing statement before I sentence you.

I'm sure Nadia must have known she's about to go to jail.

Nevertheless, she stood up, nervously clutching her piece of paper, took a deep breath,

and read out from her notes, and what she said to the judge and to the world, I believe will go down as one of our generation's greatest speeches.

She said, I wouldn't give people labels.

There are no winners or losers here, injured parties or accused.

We just need to make contact, to establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth, to seek wisdom together, to be philosophers together, rather than stigmatizing and labeling people.

That is one of the worst things people could do.

I believe Nadia thinks one of the worst things we could do is to judge each other.

Maybe we need to be less judgmental and more curious.