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Women have a great role in the protection of human rights. This may seem paradoxical, since women form a vulnerable group in our country, their rights are violated even in the family while their participation in civil society can\u2019t be underestimated.<\/p>\n
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To understand how women manage to play an active role in the field of human rights and what difficulties and obstacles they overcome along that way, we talked to the active representatives of civil society, as well as ethnographer\u00a0Hranush Kharatyan,<\/strong>who explains the origin of division of roles between man and woman, which is considered to be a social norm nowadays. The ethnographer says that in the traditional culture and social life there was no wide division between man and woman roles, instead, there was demarcation of the specifications.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Kharatyan, social isolation of women had an entirely different meaning than it has today. \u201cEspecially in the 19th\u00a0century, as the pressure on Armenians was intensified by Turks, it brought women to the smaller area of contact with the outside world. It\u2019s very likely that this was done with a more defensive purpose, but later turned into customary law. In other words, from the initial aim of defending a woman it developed into public shame and coercion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That is the dictate of reason because of which women today are not able to fully exercise their political, economic and other fields, while women are much more active in terms of human rights. It also has its own explanation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe rules of the game are not so hard in field\u00a0 \u00a0of civic activism and in the case of mistakes the strikes won\u2019t be so strong, that\u2019s why women feel more comfort in it\u201d, says activist Lena Nazaryan.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lena noticed that the civil field was not occupied by men, it was free, and men and women were able to easily come together to establish some values. \u201cIn this case any group of men could not take place of women\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, it is also much easier for men than women, here.\u00a0 The difference is explained by the \u201cWomen\u2019s Resource Center\u201d co-founder\u00a0Lara Aharonyan:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWomen human rights defenders face a double hurdle. Those, who are not married, are actively fighting in the civil society and is out in the street, demanding something are labeled by some as a \u201cspoiled\u201d women. And for a married woman the difficulty is created in the family. Woman largely take care of kids, and if they want to attend any public event, first \u00a0issue to be resolved is \u00a0to take children with a trusted person, many couples are not ready to take care of children.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lara says that even the most active and courageous women have \u201csecurity map\u201d in their minds: \u201c We always think to act so not to be harmed, choose such transport that would be safe , walk with such people that will make us feel safe\u201d. Human rights activist notes that many women leave the fighting square especially in late hours. \u201cFew people will stay or spend the night in the street; in the case of men the danger is that police can beat them, and women are also at risk of being subjected to sexual abuse.\u201d says Lara Aharonian.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our other companion, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid problems with her family, tells how she was pressured by her close relatives. \u201cAfter marriage, when my son was born, the situation tensed, because my responsibility and bothers had increased, and I was scolded and told; \u201cThe mother has no right to leave her child and go out for work for her fad, and now my life \u00a0has \u201cstopped\u201d, I am now obliged to live the life of my child and family. They say \u201cWhat kind of mother you are, to leave your baby and go to work, you\u2019re not a good mother, your husband gives you a lot of freedom, and he\u2019s weak\u201d and other similar psychological pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Young woman regretfully admits that because of this pressure she had to reduce her activity: \u201cI guess, I\u2019m tired of resisting since during the time besides the pressure from your relatives the one by the society and environment is also added. But I always try to remind myself that the human personality\u2019s development is only possible when he\\she is socially active, that is not indifferent only his poor family issues, but also actively participates in the regulation of the wider issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for women everywhere, because decision makers are men in Armenia, women are not treated seriously,\u201d says NGO\u00a0Marina Poghosyan<\/strong>. She is new in the field of human rights, registered the organization last year in order to deal with citizens\u2019 rights : \u201c When I entered this field, did not imagine that the pressures could be so much, even physical attacks were against me,\u201d says Marina.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since last year the human rights defender took up classes of boxing to defend herself. When defending the rights of one family of \u201cVeles\u201d social organization,\u00a0Marina Poghosyan\u00a0was violence by the bailiffs of the enforcement of judicial act, physical force was used against her and bodily injury caused.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRight defenders have no security guarantees in this country, and difficulty is double for women, because we are not physically as stronger as, for example, male police officer. I understood, that apart from the law, I have to be able to defend my rights by my own fist,\u201d ensures the organization\u2019s president.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Women activists mention that family members, especially in stressful situations, often tried to keep them for their own security. \u201cFor example, my grandmother called and asked me not to take part in the 20th\u00a0meeting, as the relations between two parties were tense in that period,\u201d remembers\u00a0Lena Nazaryan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Activist\u00a0Anna Shahnazaryan<\/strong>\u00a0also notes, that \u00a0she hasn\u2019t not notice a pressure by the family members as long as she is engaged civic activism. \u201c As soon as I started to participate in political activities or became the organizer of such events, especially from the moment when my family saw , that I also appeared under the police pressures, tried to use so – called social pressure on me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anna tried to explain to her family members that already feels a lot of pressure on herself and that family should support her rather than join the army of oppressors. \u201c Thus ended the pressures of family, but friends, neighbors and other groups\u2019 pressure did not end, and I\u00a0 certainly did not honor them with attention, but of course that\u2019s unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s more unpleasant for Ann, when she was urged to stay away from civil or political activity and is encouraged to marry and have children. \u201c It\u2019s , of course, the\u00a0 unfortunate perception for the role of women,\u00a0 actually as a reproductive incubator.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She noted that recently police are violent against women protestants as much as against men. \u201c There was a time when, for example, only men were arrested or beat and women got light strikes. Now is no longer this case, especially during actions against Russia , police are acting violently in their unlawful actions.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Marina Poghosyan\u00a0also states that besides the traditional ways of pressure on women human rights defenders ( e. g. criminal case against activist), there is also physical violence. \u201c I felt on my own skin and I know what is physical violence, when a man weighting 120 kg can literally cut off a small woman\u00a0 from the ground and throw on the concrete stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The pressure is huge, but women human rights defenders have no intention to give up. \u201c We are always target, especially when we go out to streets to protest, when you turn drastic actions, there will always be pressure. But I do not consider myself a plant and see the events taking place around me and can\u2019t just pay no attention to them,\u201d says civil activist\u00a0Hasmik Martirosyan.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lena Nazaryan believes, that women can overcome obstacles, if they have a strong will and a willingness to fight. \u201c If women indeed take a responsibility, a commitment to do something, if they\u2019re active, progressive, then no one can stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Her words are confirmed by the chairman of \u201c Veles\u201d NGO. \u201c The more you\u2019re oppressed, the more determined you turn to be, and become more convinced that you must do that job and it looks like you\u2019re getting stronger. I believe, people who deal with woman human rights defenders, realized that we won\u2019t \u00a0give up easily.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Arman Gharibyan<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Women have a great role in the protection of human rights. This may seem paradoxical, since women form a vulnerable group in our country, their rights are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-134"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}