PRESS RELEASE
ARMENIAN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
65 Main St., #3A
Watertown, MA 02472
March 26, 2007
CONTACT: Barbara Merguerian
Tel: 617-926-0171
E-mail: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
Net: _www.aiwa-net.org_ ()
Women’s History Program Will Explore
Armenian Feminism and Nationalism
In its annual observance of Women’s History Month, the Armenian
International Women’s Association (AIWA) this year is sponsoring a
program dealing with the tremendous challenges that faced the Armenian
nation in the immediate post-genocide period.
`Can Feminism Survive a Nation? Armenian Women Intellectuals and Their
Discourses in 1920s Istanbul’ is the theme of the presentation, which
will take place on Sunday, April 1, at 3 p.m. at the Armenian Cultural
Foundation in Arlington, MA.
The program will explore the gendered after-effects of the Armenian
Genocide on the ways prominent Armenian intellectuals of Istanbul
understood their community’s past, present, and future. With a focus
on the Armenianwomen’s journal Hay Gin (Armenian Woman), published in
Istanbul from 1919 to 1933, the talk will explain how the theme of
`Armenian motherhood’ was employed to enable a uniquely post-1915
Armenian feminism in Turkey.
The topic will be presented by a young, Turkish-born Armenian scholar,
Lerna Ekmekcioglu, doctoral candidate in History and Middle Eastern
Studies at New York University. The working title of her dissertation
is `Feminists and Nationkeeping: Armenians of Istanbul in the Late
Ottoman and Early Republican Turkey. ‘ A graduate of Bogazici
University in Istanbul with a major in Sociology, Ekmekcioglu has
published several articles and made various paper presentations.
She recently co-edited a volume about Turkish-Armenian female
intellectualsof the past century, titled A Cry for Justice: Five
Armenian Feminist Writers from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish
Republic (1862-1944), in Turkish. Atthe Middle East Studies
Association meeting in Boston last fall, she participated in a panel
on `Identity and Narrative in the Armenian Press.’
The recent assassination of the Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink in
Istanbul has thrown a spotlight on the Armenian community of
Turkey. At thesame time it has revealed how little is known about that
community, its institutions, its struggles and contradictions, and its
recent hisory. AIWA’s program will offer insights into the community
in general, and specifically in the role of women.
The public is cordially invited to attend.
AIWA was established in 1991 as an independent, non-profit,
non-sectarian organization designed to advance the visibility of
Armenian women. Open to all who share its goals, AIWA has organized
four international conferences, supported health, educational, and
social programs in Armenia, planned numerous lectures, workshops, and
programs dealing with issues of concern to Armenian women, instituted
a scholarship program, published several books, and established a
network of Armenian women.
Further information about AIWA and the April 1 Women’s History Month
program is available by contacting the association at 65 Main St.,
Watertown, MA; telephone: 617/926-0171; e-mail: [email protected]_
(mailto:[email protected]); web:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
