Interview with Lara
Aharonyan, Chairwoman of Women's Resource Center

Your organization
has started to deal with domestic violence just recently. How did it happen?

During last two years,
since the case of Zaruhi, there has been much talk about domestic violence, and
we -seven organizations- created a coalition “Against violence towards women”.
We did various actions as a coalition, raised awareness on domestic violence
hot line and I believe that after that more people learned that there is a
coalition of organizations, which can support them, and more people started to
call and apply to us. Before, the issue was kept hidden, people would not talk
about it, and now more people apply for help.

Besides, we have
started to work more with regional organizations, creating groups and helping
them to raise awareness in regions, especially the remote ones, because the
majority of cases were coming from distant isolated regions and when thing
happen, we were already late to help.

So we can say that
especially after the death of Zaruhi the social awareness on domestic violence
has increased?

Yes, and people began
to apply to us more, because they know what we do. Zaruhi' husband was
sentenced, Mariam Gevorgyan's court investigation is in process, I do not know
yet how it will end. However, people see that there is a group, which does
everything to help them, they are not alone. It seems to me, that the level of
confidence has raised, for more people now call us.

They began to trust
because they see what we do. Prior to that we had not so openly, had not done
so many awareness campaigns, but now those people who participated in our
campaigns, when they learn about cases of violence, they immediately inform us
or other organizations in the coalition.

Was it, most
probably, the same with the case of Maro Guloyan, who recently died as a result
of domestic violence?

Yes, a journalist
called in the morning and told about the case, and asked what we can do. Our
lawyer and I contacted the family, attended them, and met also with the case
investigator.

These people did not
know their basic rights, they did not know, what to do, whom to call, did not
know anything about the process.

Are women's rights protected
in Armenia, in your opinion? What changes had happened since the start of your
organization's work?

We are now in the
phase, when violence against women has started being discovered. However, we
cannot say that women's right are protected and everything is well. For,
firstly, we don't have a law on domestic violence, and that hinders
significantly our capacities to protect women's rights in full. The cases are
opened on the basis of a regular violence, and this does not help, as the
nature of domestic violence differs from the regular violence, because the
perpetrator and victim of violence live in the same space, also there is a
question of children...Domestic violence should be regarded separately.

Are any activities
carried on development of the law?

In 2010, an
inter-departmental committee was established and led by the Ministry of Labor
and Social Issues. Also international and local non-governmental organizations,
including our organization, participate in the committee.  A
working plan for 2011-2014 has been developed, but it stays only on paper, and
in reality, there are many things to do. The law is one of things to do, and it
should have been adopted in 2011, but it has been postponed constantly. The
draft has to be brought in agreement with the Council of Europe Convention on
Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence and with
national legislation, because there are some contradictions with the Family
Law. For different reasons, the adoption of the law is delayed, because the
Government resists the law being adopted. In fact, they do not want the law
passed for a number of reasons, and we struggle that it happens.

Will anything be
changed if the law is adopted?

Certainly, the law
solely cannot change everything, there is a lot to be done in the society, and
to reach more effectiveness in our work we try to work with organizations of
the coalition in unity. Nevertheless, the absence of the law substantially hinders
our work.

What are going to
do to change the societal attitude?

We have a great lot to
do, because, unfortunately, we do not teach our children how they should behave
to each other neither in school nor in the university. We need to teach
children from early ages about relations between sexes. Children mainly observe
these relationships only in their families, and in many cases the situation in
their families is far from being perfect. Due to this, we have decided to
cooperate with one organization, which will work in regions with young couples,
starting their own families, with youth, families and other. Our conversation
will be built around the concept of respect, as all these things happen due to
lack of respect, for a man regards a woman as an object, which can be treated
the way he likes.

Do the cases of
domestic violence in Armenia have common features?

Mainly it starts the
same way: a girl gets married, after some time she starts to complain to her
parents, friends and relatives and tell that she cannot stand it anymore, that
her husband beats and treats her badly. The society's approach is the same:”be
patient, you have a child, it will change, it is your husband, the father of
your children”. We have already two notorious cases which ended in death: the
one of Zaruhi and the other of Maro.

We want the society to
understand that if you don't talk about this, you bring this to death, to
murder. How many families in Armenia agree that their girl be killed? We need
to pose the question this way because many people think: “OK, nothing will happen,
he bet her, it will pass.”

However, what is
the reason that a parent forces his/her child to accommodate?

The reason is that in
our society the attitude toward sex is differentiated. If you are a man, you
should earn money, keep your home well, and if you are a girl, you should
become a mother, should be more accommodating, patient, should devote yourself
to your family. The visible inequity of the roles brings to a situation, when
one constantly has the power over the other and makes decision instead of her,
and sometimes it reaches its ultimate, when his caprice is not satisfied, he
can end in violence: to raise a hand, to oppress psychologically. For our society teaches from the childhood
that it is normal for the man to be this way, and the woman shall obey.

Thus we have a task to
teach also what is a masculinity and how it should be realized? We have many
cultivated and accepted bad models, that is: you are a man, you need to show
your force, need to shout, beat, strike, use bad language. This model
constantly is reproduced. The minors getting older learn it. Because of this,
we need to work not only with women but also men.

Maybe, I am
exaggerating, but I often say to mothers: you raise you children to become
victims, you give a complex of a victim to your girls, telling them “you should
do this way, cut your voice, a girl should not raise her voice, she should obey
her brother, father, uncle.” What father or mother would agree that his/her
child becomes a victim?- the question should be put this way.

How many deaths should
we have that this nation understands that it is enough, we cannot continue this
way. When a girl calls and tells her mother that she is beaten, not to be told
be patient. What a parental attitude is this to allow your girl be treated
cruelly? Armenian parents who will do everything for their children...but maybe
only to their male children, because they always think that girls are not
theirs, they will go to others' homes.

We as a society shall
take a responsibility for all victims, we cannot sit doing nothing.

Recently people
talk much, including on television, about violence, especially television soup
operas with lots of violent scenes. Do you see a problem here and do you do
anything against it?

Certainly, we see the problem,
because television has a great influence over people. We want to place social
advertisement on television but cannot afford it.  The channels do not provide us with free air
and ask for a lot of money for a single social ad. On the other side, they play
their soup operas, which are full of violent scenes, and the society, youth and
even children watch them.

There is a need for
and a lack of wise people. The most important thing for them is their own
interest, and they will air even garbage for that. We try to do things
differently, but probably this does not reach a wider audience as it would
through television.

To summarize, what
should be do to prevent domestic violence, where should we start?

Firstly, we need to
adopt the law on domestic violence.

Secondly, we need to
teach special police force to deal with domestic violence that they can work
correctly in this area. We don't have judges, prosecutors, in all these spheres
we need training, so that an abused woman who applies to police trusts that her
rights will be protected, and she will not become a victim of another abuse and
bad attitude, this time coming from the investigator. We have many cases, when
women applied to the police and faced a bad attitude during investigation, and
then dropped all their complaints.

We as a
non-governmental organization know in which direction we should work. Now we
implement a function of an urgent response, but systemic changes are needed to
ensure that the system works regardless whether we are there on not, and the
women do not need to appeal to NGOs. 

Interview by Mary
Alexanyan