To this day (while it is the 21st century abroad) Armenians are of the opinion that the Armenian woman differs from the women of all other nations in that she has a large and exclusive amount of virtues. The fact that this is simply a nice legend, that women all around the world are similar to one another with their emotions and that the sexual appearance of women is the same was reaffirmed by head of the reproduction department of the center for Health Maintenance and Family Planning Georgi Poghosyan. While U.S. State Secretary Condoleeza Rice drives all men crazy with her professionalism and beautiful legs, while women apply for the position of president in France and the U.S., there are also active women in Armenia on the threshold of the elections. No matter how similar Armenian women physiologically are to the women of the world, however there is a huge difference in Armenian women-they communicate with Armenian men.
Any Armenian familiar with the political field of Armenia and the rules will claim that applying to enter the political field in Armenia is risky and a discomfort for Armenian women. In fact, it is dangerous to the health. A variety of women’s political and non-governmental organizations, including “Shamiram”, “Women of Armenia”, “Women’s Organization of the University”, etc., which seem as though don’t function nowadays, talk about the fact that the female-politics factor just doesn’t work in Armenia-if, of course, that woman isn’t National Assembly Deputy Hermine Naghdalyan or Hranush Hakobyan. After all this, it is unnecessary to even picture theoretically that a woman may one day become the president of Armenia. In fact, this put a smile on Georgi Poghosyan’s face.
“Shame on me and let all the feminists of Armenia and the world curse me, but I believe that a woman can hold a leading position in the government as an exception and you can see that that is the way it is in the world. I have dedicated my life to women’s health and know their emotional changes during the month and their inclinations towards motherhood. Governing the country with maternal emotions just doesn’t work. It is hard to govern a country; it requires a different way of thinking. As for the upcoming parliamentary elections, of course, women must show active participation. They are living in Armenia and are full citizens of the country,” says Georgi Poghosyan. However, the doctor is inclined to believe that women entering parliament will pay for that with their health.
“I am on women’s side and that is why I don’t want for them to be in politics. Everyone says that women have to drive. But it is dangerous for her and the environment when she is putting on lipstick or observing her fingernails instead of paying attention to the road while driving. It is very nice to see a woman driving, but in some cases, especially on the streets of Yerevan, driving is stressful for women. Do we need that? Women were created for another purpose and that does not set limits on her rights; on the contrary. I am not against having women in parliament. It’s just that in the Armenian parliament, which has become incomprehensive, where we have deputies with a 5th-6th grade level education, it’s not that encouraging in the sense of health”.
However, in any case, what forces established women to put aside the fear of endangering their health or appearing in a bad society to try to become a deputy? For example, illiterate Hranush Kharatyan, who has already had a couple of unsuccessful tries to enter parliament, will try once again this year through the proportional electoral system. Mrs. Kharatyan promised to announce which political party she will join on Saturday. She only said that she doesn’t refer to dominant political parties. This is what she had to say about her failures in the past:
“Each political system has its methods of success. It’s not whether you are a professional in politics or not. You have to specialize in those methods. The human, administrative and financial resources currently used are unacceptable for me and are unsuitable. I don’t understand how one can take advantage of the bad situation of the people to enter the political field”.
According to Hranush Kharatyan, there is a lack of the most important thing; that there are non-political methods and non-political vocabulary applied during the formation of the National Assembly. Secondly, the goal of participating in the election is not to win, but bringing the variety of political solutions into the light.
“In our country, there is no logic for political processes. As a female, I feel discomfort what with the methods applied for the conduct of elections. There is no audience and the ones present are not ready at large for a political dialogue. There is no audience due to the disappointment of the people; people don’t believe in the results. There is already an image of the electoral audience which is, better yet, the imaginary audience. Each activist wants a political dialogue, but doesn’t meet the audience”.
The conditions for launching the pre-electoral period differ among men and women, according to Hranush Kharatyan.
“Today, a woman can not promise the opening of a water line. Besides that, we don’t have a group of women that can have connections. I don’t think that Armenia has women that can make real proposals in politics, although I must say that this goes for men also.”
Currently, it is accepted to consider the women’s sex as the highest point of value and possibilities. Perhaps Georgi Poghosyan is right when he says that “Men should dream of doing what women do”. To be more precise, men should create conditions so that women dream of getting involved in anything but politics.