Epress.am News from Armenia
Whether in conflict, in peace or in the current state of no-peace, no-war, women’s voices on both sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border are rarely heard in mainstream discourse. Women often feel like they don’t have a voice whether it be in their personal and family lives, in their community or in the affairs of their country, so reads the introduction to a new trilingual (Armenian, Azeri, English) blog of a cross-border project titled Armenian and Azerbaijani Women’s Narratives Project.
Over the past few months, two teams of journalists, writers and bloggers in both Armenia and Azerbaijan interviewed a handful of women of different ages and backgrounds, both in the capitals of Yerevan and Baku and in the regions as part of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Women’s Narratives Project (sponsored by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation as part of its “Unbiased E-Media Coverage in Armenia and Azerbaijan” program). We asked them about their lives, their hopes and wishes for themselves, their families and their countries. Epress.am will feature the interviews — one a week, published every Monday — starting today.
To listen to the audio file of the interview below (in the original language, Armenian) as well as read the interview in full, visit the blog by clicking here. No photographs were taken of the interviewees to create a more comfortable interview environment and to respect their privacy.
Here is one interview from the project, with 52-year-old Ruzanna from Stepanavan, Armenia:
I was born in here in Stepanavan. My granddad arrived as a migrant; my grandmother was from an orphanage. They had three boys and a girl. I have one sister; we are the children of the oldest son. I graduated from the pedagogical institute in Kirovakan [currently Vanadzor]. I had five girls, who are all in Yerevan. Two are working, one is married, and the two others are studying. My husband works in a gold mine.
I lost one child in the earthquake [of December 7, 1988]. A five-floor building collapsed. My mother got out. Another of my girls also got out, but my young one didn’t. I was pregnant [at that time] and evacuated to Ukraine. I gave birth there. We stayed in Ukraine for three months.
I mostly worked during the Soviet times. Then I had the baby who died during the earthquake. After that I got pregnant again. I went from one pregnancy leave to the other and after that I didn’t work anymore. Until the children grew old enough…Who was I by then that they would give me work… Besides, they only gave work to younger people. Why would they give a job to someone my age?
First I worked for the regional authorities, then as a teacher of physics and astronomy. They fired me from my job in 1996. I went from one pregnancy leave to the next, so they decided I was a superfluous employee. Later they fired even more teachers and pretended that allegedly they raised the salaries. They sort of divided the salary money. They didn’t allow one person to work a fulltime job and to receive a fulltime salary. They divided the work such that you, me and she all have work, but what do we each get? A tiny sum. Not enough to feed a family. I am waiting for my pension, but I don’t know how much that will be.
Now everything is becoming more expensive. People my age don’t receive benefits or a pension and we don’t have work. How can you live? My mother-in-law is an old woman. She gets a pension and we basically live on that. We barely manage to collect my husband’s salary to pay the children’s tuition fees and what they need to live.
We have always lived in this house. It was badly damaged in the earthquake. We managed to repair it little by little. The children worked, they sent money. My sister-in-law abroad helped. We have a big house with two floors somewhere else in town. Until now we are unable to finish that house. After the earthquake we had a ‘domik’ [temporary prefab or container-like housing for those who had lost their homes in the earthquake]. After the earthquake we used to make a bonfire and sleep outside. The children slept outside on cots, we slept sitting up.
After the earthquake we bought livestock. Until last year, then we sold the animals. Well, sold… We gave the animals [to the buyers], but they haven’t paid the money yet. Now we still have some land where we grow potatoes, beets, carrots, beans… If it’s a lot, we sell it. If not, then it’s only for us. The bread is from our own wheat, the potatoes are from our land, the beets and carrots are also ours. Before, I also made and sold cheese, butter, sour cream. Now we have one room that we rent out to tourists in the summer. They come from all corners of the world and leave very satisfied, because they do ‘exotic’ things here. I prepare food for them, dinner, pastries. They even often buy me gifts!