source: Society Without Violence, NGO
(for Armenian version see here)
I think lots of people have heard about Zaruhi Petrosyan’s murder. Maybe some of them already know that Zaruhi lived in Masis town, and she was attending State Agrarian College of Masis, studying very well. Nevertheless not everyone knows that Zaruhi’s class mate Aregnaz is the only one among other 15 female students who, with a big sorrow, every time recalls what happened with her friend, with fear and uncertainty telling how Zaruhi was attending classes with the bruises, that in summer time she had to wear long-sleeves to cancel the signs of violence. “It is already too late to change something, Zaruhi is not with us…Now I want only one thing, fair trail …”- talked with us Areqnaz weeks ago during the meeting with to stop violence against women coalition members.
I remember that at our meeting one of the teachers even said she would not allow the girls to come to the court for testimony; it will be an additional stress for them.
So what? Going to keep silence and pretending that everything is pure in our society and without violence? To close our eyes on such violence is the same as allow them happen again and again. And what the indifferent neighbor, who didn’t speak out, will feel when some day the violence will knock her door, take his portion and stay unpunished.
The meetings with college girls made us think once again that they do not really understand what the violence is, how they can prevent it and where they can turn to when they are abused. They did not how to help, as well they were scared to help their friend to avoid the tragic death.
A very interesting fact, the majority of the college students are boys. During the meeting it turned out that the girl participants were representing different classes, and in each class there is only one girl student. To the question what is the reason that among 18 students in each class only one girl studies, one participant answered: "Our college does not have good reputation for girls. And many parents do not allow their daughters to be enrolled in this college, as their daughters will be talked behind and gossiped”
Aiming to have one more meeting with college girl students we came back to Yerevan and decided to have a training, talk with the girls trying not only to increase their knowledge on gender equality but simply make them more active and bring freshness to their life.
So on May 18 SWV team went to Masis to conduct a civic forum on gender based stereotypes, make them active and encourage their initiation of the action on breaking gender-based stereotypes.
Before the visit we have contacted with both director and vice director of the college and coordinated the training details with them. They both greeted our initiation and welcomed such programs to be held more frequently which can to some extend prevent the tragedies as happened to Zaruhi. They emphasized that sometimes such cases happen because of lack of information and low awareness level.
The college administration and the students welcomed us warmly in the college in Masis. It should be mentioned that the Law professor of the college expressed the willingness to participate in the workshop who was present at the first part of our meeting.
According to the training agenda the girls first were presented with some information who we are and what we do. As the girls really had very little information on gender, gender discrimination, gender based stereotypes; we had a preliminary informative talk on the above mentioned topics before starting the civic forum. At the beginning we tried to understand if the girls knew what is stereotype. We found out that nobody knew about it. Girls didn’t know even what ‘’gender’’ means but they had some vale imaginations about the equality between men and women.
Then we organized brainstorming; the girls already had basic knowledge and began to bring some gender-based stereotype examples from their everyday life. During the brainstorming the girls actively were introducing their opinions and debating in the case of opposite opinions.
After the short coffee-break we decided to have a small group work when the participants within their working group should choose one gender-based stereotype and suggest an action for its break. Unfortunately during the group work it was clear that some of the girls had problems in expressing their own opinion, sharing it.
Through an anonymous voting one of the ideas for the action was selected which will be implemented by the support of “Society without Violence” NGO soon.
It was importing for us that one more group of the girls was informed and had a chance to speak about the discrimination and gender stereotypes. It’s impossible to change the mentality, way of thinking within hours. But we are sure, that frequent meetings, ongoing feedback and contact with them will inspire them, the seeds will develop, blossom and become flowers.
So what? Going to keep silence and pretending that everything is pure in our society and without violence? To close our eyes on such violence is the same as allow them happen again and again. And what the indifferent neighbor, who didn’t speak out, will feel when some day the violence will knock her door, take his portion and stay unpunished.
The meetings with college girls made us think once again that they do not really understand what the violence is, how they can prevent it and where they can turn to when they are abused. They did not how to help, as well they were scared to help their friend to avoid the tragic death.
A very interesting fact, the majority of the college students are boys. During the meeting it turned out that the girl participants were representing different classes, and in each class there is only one girl student. To the question what is the reason that among 18 students in each class only one girl studies, one participant answered: "Our college does not have good reputation for girls. And many parents do not allow their daughters to be enrolled in this college, as their daughters will be talked behind and gossiped”
Aiming to have one more meeting with college girl students we came back to Yerevan and decided to have a training, talk with the girls trying not only to increase their knowledge on gender equality but simply make them more active and bring freshness to their life.
So on May 18 SWV team went to Masis to conduct a civic forum on gender based stereotypes, make them active and encourage their initiation of the action on breaking gender-based stereotypes.
Before the visit we have contacted with both director and vice director of the college and coordinated the training details with them. They both greeted our initiation and welcomed such programs to be held more frequently which can to some extend prevent the tragedies as happened to Zaruhi. They emphasized that sometimes such cases happen because of lack of information and low awareness level.
The college administration and the students welcomed us warmly in the college in Masis. It should be mentioned that the Law professor of the college expressed the willingness to participate in the workshop who was present at the first part of our meeting.
According to the training agenda the girls first were presented with some information who we are and what we do. As the girls really had very little information on gender, gender discrimination, gender based stereotypes; we had a preliminary informative talk on the above mentioned topics before starting the civic forum. At the beginning we tried to understand if the girls knew what is stereotype. We found out that nobody knew about it. Girls didn’t know even what ‘’gender’’ means but they had some vale imaginations about the equality between men and women.
Then we organized brainstorming; the girls already had basic knowledge and began to bring some gender-based stereotype examples from their everyday life. During the brainstorming the girls actively were introducing their opinions and debating in the case of opposite opinions.
After the short coffee-break we decided to have a small group work when the participants within their working group should choose one gender-based stereotype and suggest an action for its break. Unfortunately during the group work it was clear that some of the girls had problems in expressing their own opinion, sharing it.
Through an anonymous voting one of the ideas for the action was selected which will be implemented by the support of “Society without Violence” NGO soon.
It was importing for us that one more group of the girls was informed and had a chance to speak about the discrimination and gender stereotypes. It’s impossible to change the mentality, way of thinking within hours. But we are sure, that frequent meetings, ongoing feedback and contact with them will inspire them, the seeds will develop, blossom and become flowers.
Anna Nikoghosyan
