ARMENIA SEEKS TO END SILENCE OVER DOMESTIC ABUSE
by Mariam Harutunian

Agence France Presse — English
December 17, 2008 Wednesday 5:04 AM GMT

It was the fear in her children’s eyes that finally convinced Anayit
to leave her husband after years of abuse.

Married at 19, Anayit had worried from the beginning about her
husband’s possessiveness and jealousy. He followed her to university
classes and forbade her to visit friends or even her parents on
her own.

The first time he struck her, all she had done was go alone to a shop
to buy bread.

"When he learned what I had done, he punched me in the face and
screamed that I was a prostitute," said Anayit, now 27.

Years of abuse followed until she left him last year, taking her
three young children to the only shelter for battered women in the
Armenian capital Yerevan.

"I was suffering for the sake of our children, they need a father. But
when he hit me in front of them and I saw fear in their eyes, I
realised that for my children’s sake I had to leave him," she said.

Anayit is rare in Armenia not only for seeking help and leaving an
abusive relationship, but also for speaking out about what human
rights groups say is widespread domestic violence.

Armenians are proud of the strong family bonds that have endured for
centuries in this remote and isolated ex-Soviet republic, proud of
its history as the first state to adopt Christianity as state religion.

But some say those traditions are being warped, allowing abusers to
act with impunity and police to turn a blind eye to domestic violence
by claiming it is purely a "family matter".

Rights group Amnesty International said that Armenia’s tradition of
strong family bonds "hides an institutionalised culture of silence
on violence within the family and injustice for its victims."

As many as one in four Armenian women have at some time experienced
violence at the hands of husbands or other family members, Amnesty
International said in a report released last month.

But the speaking out about abuse has remained a taboo, with family
secrets remaining behind the closed doors of family homes.

"When my husband was beating me, my mother-in-law used to say that
it meant he wasn’t indifferent and that he loved me, and that her
husband used to beat her as well," said Karina, 32, another woman at
the shelter.

— ‘An initiative to end the silence’ —

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In a survey Armenia’s Women’s Rights Centre conducted last year, 88
percent of respondents said domestic violence was a private matter
best handled within the home.

That culture of indifference and secrecy extends to law enforcement,
rights groups said, with police often ignoring abuse and in some
cases pressuring women to drop complaints.

"Police endorse the view that domestic violence is an internal ‘family
matter’ that should not be publicly pursued," the Amnesty report said.

It said that during police training sessions run by the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, senior officers with more than
20 years experience said they had never dealt with a single case of
domestic violence.

But activists are now hoping that a draft law to finally criminalise
domestic violence will be adopted by parliament next spring.

Unlike in many other countries, domestic violence is not dealt with
separately under Armenian law and falls under general provisions for
assault and other violent crimes.

"We hope that lawmakers will take our initiative seriously and that
the silence on this problem will finally end," said Susanna Vardanian,
the director of the Women’s Rights Centre, which along with other
non-governmental groups helped draft the bill.

Supporters of the bill say a separate law is needed in order to push
police to deal with domestic violence and to protect women who decide
to come forward about abuse.

The law would make it mandatory for police to investigate allegations
of domestic violence and legally prevent husbands from claiming that
a woman’s behaviour was a "mitigating factor" in abuse.

"The police and the courts are not taking this problem seriously,"
said Rafik Petrosian, a pro-government lawmaker who supports the bill.

"A strong family is simply the most important thing for
Armenians. That’s why the police try to reconcile spouses and to
prevent divorce."

Activists are also pushing for government support for a nationwide
network of crisis centres and shelters offering advice and protection
to battered women.

And while legal reforms are a vital step, many say changing public
attitudes is just as important.

"This is a perversion of national traditions," said another lawmaker
supporting the bill, Naira Zograbian.

"According to Armenian tradition a husband is the head of the family."

"But tradition doesn’t say that the husband should be a tyrant and
that the wife can’t develop as an individual, can’t work, can’t decide
what to wear or choose her own friends."