Let us struggle for equal
rights and representation of women
It has been more than 95 years,
since the International Women’s day is celebrated on March 8. It was born in
1909, due to protests of American women working in textile factories. And on
March 8, 1911 the German socialist Clara Tsedkin organized International
Women’s Day, which was accompanied by demonstrations and marches in Germany, Austria,
Denmark
and other European countries. In 1977 the UN officially declared March 8 as
International Women’s Day and which is celebrated in various countries of the
world, including Armenia.
March 8symbolizes
struggle for political and social rights of women, for recognition of their
rights and opportunities in equal competition with men and deciding for the
subsistence of their states and societies.
Discussions
about the rights of Women and gender equality are accepted with grumble and
cynicism in Armenia.
Be aged or young, man or woman, people generally insist that there is no issue
of women’s rights in Armenia, and that all human rights, independent to the
gender of the individual, are declared in our Constitution and are endorsed by
all the laws. But there may be two approaches to the equality: yes, the first
is to reject gender discrimination by the law and guarantee equal rights by the
legislation, and the second approach is the
actual implementation of those laws and equality of opportunities (or the so
called equality of outcomes), which is guaranteeing such conditions that men
and women will have actual equal and just participation and representation in
the political, civic, economic, social and cultural sectors, at all levels.
Equality does
not mean resemblance: gender equality has wrongly lead to the way of thinking
that women should decline from their inner and outer feminine characteristics,
act, think and dress like males, and the other way around, men as women. On the
contrary, the real meaning of equal and just participation of men and women is
that in social, economic, cultural, political and civic aspects of life, in all
sectors the true values of the men’s
and women’s roles be balanced and equal representation and special issues
related to both genders be equally spoken and defended. This is a guarantee for
the harmony, true solidarity and static development of our community, our
society, our nation.
Women compose
more than half of the citizens and inhabitants of our state, therefore justice,
human and national rights require that they should have equal opportunities of
raising and defending their special issues at all levels and strategies of
political and social decision making: issues, that are the most related to the
existence, security and development of our state, society and nation.
Linking the
issue of violation of women’s rights to African countries or Islamic
communities is principally an incorrect way of thinking. With various extents
this issue exists in all states and societies and to a great scope, also in Armenia. Isn’t
it the Armenian reality that women are avoiding having children, even so more
than one child? Isn’t it an issue of national security in Armenia that we have
become an aging society (in 2005 only around 37000 births have been registered
in Armenia, which means a decline of more than 50% compared to the 80000 births
in 1990*)? And at the same time we are expecting to have a flourishing Republic of Armenia
populated mainly with Armenians, an Armenian state in Nagorno Karabagh, and
moreover, one day return to Western Armenia
and rebuild it. The relation between our abovementioned aspirations and the
defense of women’s rights and their actual self-realization is inevitable. Today
our country is not properly defending women’s rights in the workplace, without
actual guarantees that after childbirth
women will not lose their jobs and that for certain years she will be able to
coordinate her job and taking care of her child, and that after maternity leave
she’ll be trained in her profession, that she assumes full valued, prestigious
and responsible tasks, that she has enough state protection for taking care of
her underage children and for securing their health and education.
It is necessary to assure equal pay of men and women having similar
qualifications. It is also necessary to create equal conditions and
opportunities for men and women to acquire qualifications of similar levels. Unemployment
of women is also an alarming issue: the majority, around 70.4%**, of those
looking for jobs is women and so on…
… Who can and
should raise such issues and demands, if not women and with the solidarity of
aware men? How can women achieve it without being fully, equally and justly
represented in the social-political life, in the local self-governing bodies,
in the National Assembly, in the Constitutional Court and at other high-ranked
offices and decision making bodies? The
lone efforts of civic and non governmental organizations can not be enough. A
representation with equal proportionality in the National Assembly, the
ministries, local self-governing bodies, as well as in the administrative
bodies of economic and other institutions and major decision making bodies, at
first through quotas, and later by civic consciousness.
It is also
necessary to educate women to be strong, daring and self-confident, to consider
themselves an equal candidate for functioning in the abovementioned sectors,
for publicly raising and defending the important issues of our society and
state, for decision making.
It is the
responsibility of each of us, members of our state and society to educate such
citizens, who will be aware of and respect their differences (among which that
of gender) and with it their equal rights and opportunities.
* * *
Women are and
have always been the strong foundations of our nation with their high common
sense, thoughtfulness, endurance, prudence, and at the same with their clear,
flexible and many-sided thinking and organizational abilities, with their
determination, and virtuous characteristics of putting themselves aside for the
communal interest, self-defense and solidarity. Yes, Armenian women are all
these and even more, as well as their ESSENTIAL and irreplaceable values in the
realization of the past, present and the future of Armenian history, even
though sadly their NAMES have not been registered and not remembered along with
individual heroes… It’s a SHAME and even STRANGE… Only women strengthened by
these characteristics can give birth to and educate full-fledged human beings
and Armenians. These women can also shape real men and in harmony with them
create just, solid and emerging Armenian individualities, families, communities,
societies, nation, and state. In the most difficult and fatal moments of our
history the Armenian family and nation have been defended by the women, as is
testified by our reality in Armenia, the Nagorno Karabagh and the Diaspora. A
Quantum Leap is necessary from the FORMAL and ARTIFICIAL RECOGNITION towards
the authentic acknowledgment of VITAL and PIVOTAL value and role, thus securing
and reinforcing the equal POLITICAL PARTICIPATION and REPRESENTATION of
Armenian women in the democratic and socially just development, in ALL the high
ranked national offices. Armenian women will be more RESPECTED and APPRAISED if
instead of receiving flowers and candy they are encouraged and NOT INHIBITED
from their 50% participation in the communal, social, state and national actual
decision making offices and not “by self-deception of 5%, 10%, 15% or 25%
participation”. And if more than 50% of the national population is women and
their quality input is also more than 50% of that, then justice, respect of
human and national rights and especially rational national and state security
and development requires that Armenian women should be among the ranks of the
DECISION makers. Thus they contribute their irretrievable characteristics and
that only by 50% participation they will definitely subvert and improve the
Armenian reality.
If WE do not
PERCEIVE this fact and not be AWARE of it, then as a nation and state we will
primitively take continuous backward steps. All of us and each of us as men and
women, but mostly those men dominating the POWER in ALL the main levels, need
to exert a great effort. Their awareness, commonsense, patriotism, honesty,
genuine muscularity will be proved if they succeed in totally changing their
mentality, behavior and unjust tradition and guarantee a 50% representation of
women in all levels of power.
A challenge
is thrown to them. But are they competent enough of taking that step in the
current critical phase of the Armenian nation and its state building?! If yes,
then they will realize the most powerful and courageous ACTION of Armenian
history and that of the civilized world and will be remembered forever.
__________________________
*The RA
outline of the Concept for National Demographic Strategy, Yerevan 2006
**RA National Statistical Service, 2006, Yearbook
MARCH 8 -
International Women's Day
Institute for
Democracy and Human Rights (IDHR) non-governmental organization in Armenia congratulates
all the women on the occasion of the 8th of March - International Women's Day.
The 8th of
March marks the protection of and the
struggle for the equal rights of women.
IDHR attaches
great importance to the protection and development of women's rights and EQUAL involvement in political,
civic, economic, social and cultural life worldwide and in Armenia
particularly.
IDHR calls
the authorities of the Republic of Armenia, all the Armenian institutions and
the Armenian people as well, not to be content with recording women's rights
merely on papers, but to take measures for de facto inclusion of women, to
support and encourage them, through crashing taboos and the rooted beliefs. The 50% political representation of women should be
accomplished in the name of justice, sustainable development and national
security of the Republic of Armenia.
IDHR once
again congratulates the 8th of March and calls the women to be more courageous,
fight for their rights, to stand up for securing their full-fledged
participation in the political, civic, economic, social and cultural life of
the country. IDHR also calls the men to support women in their struggle, as
manhood does not lie in strength, but in love, respect and mutual trust.
