“Fearless girl “is brave, demanding, is the owner of her rights”…

On April 7, on the occasion of Motherhood and Beauty Day, a statue of a fearless girl was placed in front of the 3rd building of the Government. It aims to eliminate gender-based discrimination and to encourage the participation of women and girls in government. The statue was erected on the initiative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The idea came from former Minister Mane Tandilyan, who attended the unveiling ceremony.

The statue of the “fearless girl” is the gift of Artsakh’s Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Migration Mane Tandilyan to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Zara Manucharyan, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, told reporters.

According to the speaker, it is symbolic to place the statue right in front of the third building of the Government. “The statue is facing the government, that is, a fearless girl who is facing the government, not with her back. “The girl is brave, demanding, she is the owner of her rights,” she said.

“Know the power of women’s leadership.” Prehistory of the statue

Note that the statue has an interesting background… The statue of “Fearless Girl” first appeared in New York in 2017, on the eve of International Women’s Day. The statue of the girl was placed in front of the famous bronze bull statue on Wall Street, which symbolizes the growing market. One of the oldest American banks, State Street Global Advisors, erected a statue of the girl to draw attention to the role of women in corporations, or rather their absence in the top management of American financial and investment corporations. There was a note under the girl’s feet. “Know the power of women leadership. It’s possible. ” The bank has sent letters to 3,500 US companies urging women to have more career opportunities.

The statue of the “fearless girl” won the hearts of tourists in New York. Fans dress her in bad weather, and many tourists imitate her position to take a selfie next to the sculpture. As crowds of tourists around the statue became an obstacle to travel, in December 2018, the statue was moved to the central entrance of the New York Stock Exchange.

By the way, sculptor Kristen Vizbal made several copies of “Fearless Girls”, which are now installed in London, Oslo and Melbourne.

“In our version there is an Armenian girl with Armenian costume, headdress, spirit”

The sculptor of the statue placed in Yerevan is Armen Samvelyan. The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mesrop Arakelyan, explaining the significance of the “Fearless Girl” statue on his Facebook page, noted that there are similar statues in different cities of the world that encourage and symbolize the empowerment of girls.

Unfortunately, the reaction in the press to the placement of the statue on social networks was ambiguous. The reason was the events related to the women’s protest near the Government building on April 7, during which the police forcibly detained the protesters.

Razminfo website coordinator Karen Vrtanesyan posted photos of the “Fearless Girl” statue on his Facebook page, calling it a hypocrisy, that “the statue was unveiled at the moment when several hundred policemen were taken out against dozens of really fearless women and girls near the government”.

The women detained during a private conversation with the ombudsman’s office complained that the response of the police officers to their actions during the rally was disproportionate.

Full text in Armenian