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September 15, 2005 National Citizens’ Initiative Examines the Role of Women in Politics Yerevan— The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today convened a roundtable on “Women in Politics.” The meeting brought together public and political figures, community activists, analysts, experts, and media representatives.
Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party and founder of NCI, welcomed the audience with opening remarks and wished the participants productive work. “Pursuant to its program focus on securing broad civil participation and public empowerment and in particular on underscoring women’s and youth issues, NCI today enters a new phase.” Speaking about the role played by Armenian women since the days of the first Republic of Armenia, during the Soviet era, and in modern Armenia, he pointed out that women have always been involved in politics, though their presence has carried largely qualitative, not quantitative importance. “Armenia’s challenge in the new age is to reconcile contemporary criteria and traditional values in a societally healthy way,” Hovannisian said. By way of example, he recognized the lady activists around the table and lauded their multiple qualities as citizens, professionals, intellectuals, and family leaders. The first speaker was Ruzan Khachaturian, the “Justice” alliance’s press secretary and a candidate running for the post of Kentron district prefect of Yerevan. In her intervention entitled “The Role of Women in the Fight for Constitutional Order and Restoration of Legitimacy,” she mentioned that one of the impediments standing in the way of establishing democracy in the country is the fact that the halls of power have taken on an accentuated male form which is often cruel and uses black PR in political processes. According to Khachaturian, women are powerless and defenseless against them. “Women refuse to utilize those methods which are employed today by some Armenian politicians in order to keep their jobs and posts,” Khachaturian said, describing her candidacy as a challenge against such type of authority. In the words of Ruzan Khachaturian, the way out of this situation lies in solidarity among women.
During her talk on “Women in Politics: The Unrevealed Civil Potential,” chairwoman Nora Hakobian of the Women’s Republican Council presented some compelling statistics. For instance, a bit better than the Vatican and San Marino, Armenia comes in third from last in the rating chart published by the Council of Europe which reflects the percentage of women’s involvement in sociopolitical life. The other indices testify to the lack of women’s participation in the Armenian experience. According to official statistical data, women make up 51.8% of the entire population, 64% of those having a university education, and 35% of those with a high academic degree. In the meantime, women are nearly absent in the decision-making process, and at best they work as consultants. While women occupy 30% of appointed political positions in democratic countries, this figure is a mere 5-6% in Armenia. Of the country’s 930 communities, only 13 have women as their local leader. Assessing the constitutional precept of gender equality as solely declarative and dysfunctional, Hakobian deemed as the outcome of women’s lack of involvement the reality that “social, health care, environment protection, and many other issues are not discussed at the parliament and the government. Meanwhile, international practice demonstrates that such matters are raised mainly by women, whereas men are inclined to broach military, economic, financial, and similar issues.” Hakobian also raised an alarm that the number of woman serving as deputy ministers has substantially declined and will continue to dip in Armenia. “One of the guarantees for the country’s development is the equal discovery and materialization of men’s and women’s abilities,” she concluded. Heritage Party board member and Derenik Demirchian High School principal Anahit Bakhshian began her address on “Indivisible Responsibility for the Political Legacy of the Country” with words of advice given by her late husband Yuri, a former deputy speaker of parliament who fell victim to the terrorism of October 27, 1999: “Instead of gossiping at home, go and become a member in the party that shares your views and take part in the state-building process.” It was in this way that Bakhshian explained her becoming a member of the Heritage Party. According to her, it is unnatural that although women constitute the majority of the population and educating the young generation primarily falls upon their shoulders, they are insufficiently represented in politics in particular. “We women educators are accountable for the conduct and educational level of the politicians and MPs of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. All of today’s officials possess a university diploma but only a very few really have a true education,” Bakhshian noted.
The remainder of the session was devoted to exchanges of views and policy recommendations among the public figures and policy specialists in attendance. Zaruhi Makhsudian of the Armenian ombudswoman’s staff was concerned by the passiveness among young women in particular. Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) analyst Alvard Barkhudarian emphasized the imperative to surmount those strictures. Appreciating this initiative by NCI, chairwoman Astghik Gevorgian of the Union of Journalists proposed the holding of roundtables dedicated to women’s issues in separate areas of interest. Participants also approved of Ruzan Khachaturian’s candidacy as an extremely important precedent. ACNIS director of research Stiopa Safarian brought forth the example of women’s wide involvement in the social and political life of Finland and its rewarding results. Also noteworthy were interventions by NCI program coordinator Edgar Hakobian; NCI activists Siranush Hovhannisian, Gohar Isakhanian, Anna Amirkhanian, and Vergine Grigorian; chairwoman Asia Hambardzumian of the Heritage Party’s Ajapniak district; young party members Arpine and Hermine Samvelian, Laura Virabian, and Arpine Parazian; and many others. In his closing remarks, NCI coordinator Hovsep Khurshudian underlined the topic’s significance for Armenia and Armenian society. “Traditionally, in the first place, women have had a prominent place in Armenian family life and ever since the establishment of the Republic of Armenia in 1918 in the sociopolitical life of the country as well. During the Soviet years, we had a number of female leaders, public and state figures. In addition, Armenian women took active part in the democratic movement that led to the foundation of today’s Republic of Armenia. Nonetheless, today women’s involvement in public and political processes is extremely limited and consequently the potential of our majority remains largely untapped. This is not an issue for women alone; it is a nationwide concern. More active participation by women in politics and within the country’s social life is the order of the day, and this must be encouraged by the state in every respect,” Khurshudian said.
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