Epress.am News from Armenia
In Armenia, there are several initiatives and groups that deal with the protection of women's rights but there is no nationwide feminist movement, said Women's Resource Center of Armenia Media and Communications Manager Elvira Meliksetyan (pictured, right) at a press conference in Yerevan earlier today.
Meliksetyan said that the initiative "Feminist Platform" will be holding a march on March 8, on occasion of the international day of the protection of women's rights.
"The platform presents itself officially and doesn't conceal its feminist approach. In our society, there is a very contradictory and stereotypical approach toward the feminist movement and feminism — very absurd comparisons are made: [that it’s] a witches’ struggle, [it promotes] matriarchal ideology, and so on. I want to say that the feminist movement in our society is connected to neither witches nor matriarchy; it is a fight for the protection of women’s rights, since [according to] global indicators, 54% of women in the entire world today are discriminated because of their gender. That's why it's women themselves who are fighting for the protection of their rights," she said.
The Women's Resource Center representative also explained why the theme "It's not shameful to fight for the protection of your rights" was chosen for this year's march.
"The stereotypes in society today, which mainly focus on our notions of gender, are no secret to anyone. Some stereotypes regarding the role of women and men are associated with the notions of 'it's shameful, do it like this; it's shameful, don't do that' and the 'it's shameful' phenomenon is manipulated, resulting in [incidents of] violence in our reality. That's why the theme of our march is completely dedicated to breaking these stereotypes, and we are protesting against the 'it's shameful' phenomenon," Meliksetyan concluded.