“Take it, give it to Liana, she’s being tortured”

“Domestic violence is a crime.” Under the slogan “Coalition to Stop Violence against Women” is organizing this year’s series of events on October 1. This day was not accidentally chosen by Coalition’s founding organizations as it is the National Day for Combating Domestic Violence: On October 1 of 2010, 20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan was killed by her husband as a result of brutal beating. Women’s rights defenders every year carry out various activities to raise public awareness.

The Coalition members began the series of events at Sasuntsi Davit Square, where disitributed information leaflets and asked questions to people to find out how well citizens are aware of what domestic violence is, how it manifests, what causes and consequences has. Many citizens mentioned that they had heard about domestic violence, but they mostly preferred not to intervene. Two elderly women approached the information desk when they learned that they were talking about domestic violence. One of them took some informational pamphlets; one of them gave to her friend saying: “Take it, give it to Liana, she’s being tortured.” Women, however, did not want to detail who Liana was and by whom was being harassed, only said that many women are in such a situation.

Men were also not indifferent to the action; many young people were condemning violence against women. “A strong and intelligent man cannot raise a hand on his wife. It’s a pitfall, “, – says Gor Nersisyan. Another young man, who did not want to introduce himself, said that men who beat women were also not respected in the criminal world. “I communicate with many respected people in this city, and they say that this is wrong. A good guy cannot beat a woman …”

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