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Armenia\u2019s female activists are reclaiming space in public life. Can the wives, sisters and muses of protesters ever be seen as protesters themselves?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is an ordinary evening in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. A man is in a taxi on Baghramyan Avenue, going down to the city centre. Suddenly, the street is blocked by protesters. Among the activists, a woman stands with a megaphone, reeling off the group\u2019s demands. \u201cThey don\u2019t have anything to do, that\u2019s why they protest,\u201d says the driver. \u201cLook at her, I\u2019m sure she hasn\u2019t got a family or a kid.\u201d The passenger smiles back: \u201cWell, she does have children, not one, but three. And even a husband \u2013 me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This short story from the life of Zaruhi Hovhannisyan, a feminist activist, reflects the uneasy public perceptions about civic protests in Armenia \u2014 and female activism in particular. \u201cIt is very hard to be a female activist in Armenia. In a society where it is expected that women should stay at home and take care of the household, it is unusual to see a woman who gets out of her shackles, occupies a street and fights for a certain cause,\u201d Zaruhi tells me .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Armenia, public space is considered \u201cdangerous for women\u201d. Armenia\u2019s police even has an official statement on \u201cfemale security\u201d that advises women on what to do to avoid harassment on the streets. \u201cWhile walking alone late, ask somebody to accompany you,\u201d \u201cTry not to wear clothes that would seduce maniacs,\u201d \u201cTry not to overload your hands with bags\u201d \u2013 these are a few helpful hints from the police that seemingly justify violence against women on the basis of their appearance and behaviour, instead of ensuring that public spaces are safe for everyone.<\/p>\n Male heroes, female supporters?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The claim that the \u201cworld outside\u201d is not secure for women is a pretext for their exclusion and underrepresentation in Armenia\u2019s civic and political matters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite these perceptions, however, female representation in Armenia\u2019s civic movements is high. As Zaruhi highlights, \u201cWomen were the cornerstones of the emergence of civic movements in Armenia and are key vocal voices at most of our civil protests.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That said, women\u2019s leadership roles or high participation are easily forgotten by the public \u2014 and especially the media. \u201cWomen did groundbreaking work at Mashtots Park,\u201d continues Zaruhi, referring to a three month-long protest in 2012 against new shopping pavilions in one of Yerevan\u2019s central parks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHowever, those taking the floor and speaking to the public with megaphones were generally men. Despite its horizontal and decentralised way of self-organising, Mashtots park protesters were not free from misogyny and homophobia. On the one hand, the protesters\u2019 claims of public ownership succeeded and the construction of the shopping pavilions was stopped. On the other, the behaviour of some protesters revealed the level of nationalism, sexism and transphobia that exist in such movements. \u201cIt was very sad to acknowledge that,\u201d concludes Zaruhi.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Analysing recent events in Armenia confirms that female activists\u2019 public and media images are still constructed according to gender-based stereotypes and expectations. In July 2016, women took part in the highly masculinised and militarised Sasna Dzrer (Daredevils of Sasun) protests, after a group of anti-government gunmen occupied a Yerevan police station<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One photo of a young woman hugging a policeman is one of the most famous images from these protests. Arine Sukiasyan approached a policeman, asking him if he would shoot her if the order was given. When the policeman answered no, Sukiasyan hugged him. The photograph portrayed the prescribed feminine role of an Armenian woman \u2014 modest, non-confrontational, the family caregiver \u2014 and it soon became iconic. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n By contrast, the activist Ani Navasardyan did not perform her conventional female role during the summer protests. Navasardyan called for action; her tone was militant. Navasardyan took the stage at the Sasna Dzrer protest, playing an active role in the demonstrations. She was later detained by police on a charge of provoking mass unrest.<\/p>\n Soon after Ani was detained and then released, she was publicly accused of invading a \u201cmale space\u201d. Social media boiled over with declarations such as \u201cI am surprised by mature, educated men with life experience who are going to be led by this girl\u201d. The view that \u201cthis movement needs real [i.e. male] leaders\u201d quickly became dominant. Those defending Ani also used essentialist language, justifying her perseverance either by the fact that she acted as a \u201creal man\u201d or that \u201cthe tragedy of not having enough men had triggered women to take control of the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It seems then that the security risks female activists are experiencing are not a result of that \u201cpublic space is dangerous for women\u201d imperative. It is not space itself that makes Armenia\u2019s female activists subject to harassment, pressure and violence, but what they do in it and how they claim their equal share of it. When women \u201ccross the line\u201d and become activists, when they deal with issues that lead to their emancipation, they become a threat \u2013 a real danger to patriarchy as they challenge the whole system of gendered power and regulation. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a result, the security risks that women experience do not come from the \u201cdangers\u201d of public space, but the constant efforts to leave patriarchy intact.<\/p>\n The cost of convictions <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Being a feminist activist in Armenia\u2019s regions and claiming public space there adds up an additional, if not fundamental layer of challenges. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ani Asatryan is a young feminist activist from the small town of Spitak, Lori region, where feminism is commonly thought to be a foreign concept. \u201cIn a city where there is no civic activism or public action, if you are a feminist, a women\u2019s human rights defender or an activist fighting for general social and political issues, if you are a woman and dare to speak up, you are going to face many challenges and break lots of stereotypes.\u201d She sees a huge gap between between feminist activism in Yerevan, and the space for it in Armenia\u2019s regions. In Spitak, according to Asatryan, there is no opportunity for feminist conversations \u2014 change comes too slow. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ani is actively involved in Civil Contract, an opposition political party that was formed in 2013 as a public-political union. In Ani\u2019s political activism, when communicating with the public, the first question she is usually asked is whether she is married. People do not bother themselves advising Ani to get married soon while she is young. In Armenia, a women\u2019s primary role is to get married, form a family and have children for the nation. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whether in the capital or in the regions, the more intense the struggle for female emancipation, the worse the backlash. The risks are greater if female activists are overtly fighting for feminist issues. As Zaruhi points out, she was threatened several times both in person and on social media. \u201cThey started to threaten my children, too. This never stopped me from doing my activism, but it is is one thing when you\u2019re responsible solely for yourself and your actions, when you\u2019re not afraid of anything, even if they deploy a tank against you, but it\u2019s a completely different level of responsibility when your children are involved.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not surprisingly, the security risks and pressures prevail not only among the public in large, but they also come from activists\u2019 most intimate circles where psychological pressures are easier to induce. Gayane, whose name has been changed for security reasons, was subject to psychological violence and manipulations by her family members because of her activism around feminist and LGBT issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPeople at my brothers\u2019 workplaces were talking about me supposedly being a lesbian as I am highly involved in LGBT* activism,\u201d Gayane tells me. Pictures of Gayane as an \u201cenemy of the nation\u201d were spread throughout Facebook. \u201cI received so much hate mail, threats, accusations, my face became well-known and my family was ashamed of me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gayane\u2019s brothers periodically threatened her, demanding that she quit her job and activism and \u201creturn to a normal life\u201d. One day they came home and forced her to choose between her work and her family. \u201cI answered I cannot chose between you and myself, my activism is who I am.\u201d They stopped communicating with her for a couple of years and hardly allowed her to see their children. \u201cIf I was at our family home, they wouldn\u2019t even come to visit our mother. I was an outlaw.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anet Shamirian, my other interlocutor, on the contrary, never felt any family pressure in connection with her activism. Moreover, her family is quite supportive \u2014 her father is a former political activist himself. An ethnic Armenian, Anet was born in Tehran, and repatriated to Armenia when she was 16. Soon she joined the Women\u2019s Resource Center, a grassroots feminist organisation in Yerevan, and got actively involved in feminist activism. \u201cIn Iran, women were more active in protests, especially concerning women\u2019s issues. But in Armenia everything was so different.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few years ago Anet and several other activists from the Women’s Resource Center publicly buried a red apple as a protest against the \u201cRed Apple\u201d ceremony. Traditionally, when a woman gets married in Armenia, the bride\u2019s family is given a bunch of red apples next day that symbolise the \u201cthe blood of the virgin\u201d and her \u201cpurity\u201d. \u201cAfter this public statement, people got really furious,\u201d mentions Anet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Female activists are used to public pressure, Anet continues. In 2013, when anti-gender movements were on the rise in Armenia<\/a>, many feminist activists were at risk as the ultra-nationalist groups were calling on the public to \u201cburn them\u201d and \u201cbomb their offices\u201d. These groups published a series of videos in a smear campaign against them and their activities, which including exposing feminists\u2019 personal information to the public. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anet admits that during protests or trainings the public notices her foreign accent and asks her where she comes from. She explains that some people treat her as a foreigner who believes she knows better and has come to educate them. \u201cMany women say to me: it\u2019s different in your case, it\u2019s easier, here I can\u2019t go home to my family and demand my rights.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anet finds that, to a certain degree, these women are right. She comes from a highly educated, politically active and privileged family where she didn\u2019t have to experience the many challenges an average Armenian woman usually goes through. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anet conducts trainings on the history of politically and socially active Armenian women. She also talks about Armenian feminists from the past \u2013 women like Shushanik Kurghinyan<\/a>, Zabel Yesayan<\/a>, Zabel Sibil Asadour<\/a>or Srbouhi Dussap<\/a>. When she talks about these figures, the public no longer sees her as a foreigner. The groundbreaking works of these women writers and thinkers deconstruct Armenians\u2019 perceptions of feminism as a foreign western concept, one that has been artificially brought to the country to destroy the country\u2019s cultures and traditions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To remind the Yerevan public about Armenia\u2019s feminist past and to reclaim and resignify male dominated public space, a group of feminists spray graffiti around the city with Shushanik Kurghinyan\u2019s poems. \u201cI wanted to sing: they told me I could not, I wove my own songs: quiet, you are a girl! [\u2026] But I kept singing endlessly, that’s when they started to cajole.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just like in Kurghinyan\u2019s poem, Armenia\u2019s feminist activists continue their endless efforts, and that\u2019s when the system gets worried. Or should do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"zaruhi\"](\"https:\/\/archive.womennet.amwp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/zaruhi.jpg\")
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