TO HELL WITH THE ROSES!
By Khatchig Mouradian

8/to-hell-with-the-roses/
March 8, 2009

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Armenian Weekly
webteam features the opinion piece below, published in the Weekly
on March 3, 2007. Over the past two years, the article, written by
Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian, has been widely circulated and has
generated much-needed discussion. We welcome your comments.

On March 8, women in Armenia will be expecting roses, gifts and other
expressions of love from their husbands, fiances or boyfriends. It
is International Women’s Day (IWD), after all. It is the day they
will feel celebrated.

But like every year, that atmosphere of celebration will conveniently
ignore the political message of IWD. In many cases, the roses will
read "I am your caretaker," and "I am (or will be, or want to be)
the head of our home." Rarely will they say "You and I are equals"
or "Armenian women have been the pillars of Armenian society in the
best of times and in the worst of times."

Few men will remind the woman they give the roses to about the
Armenian women who bore the torch of the feminist movement in the
Ottoman Empire. Very few will remember the women who fought alongside
the men when Turkish regulars and irregulars attacked their villages.

Many will continue believing that while Srpouhi Dusaps and Sose
Mayrigs are heroes, "our women" should not resemble them.

"Our women" ought to be obedient (hnazant), and us men shall remain
the head and the master (der).

Few will remember that after the Yeghern of 1915, when most of the
able-bodied Armenian boys and men were killed, it was the Armenian
women who took up the survival of an entire nation on their shoulders.

And on their shoulders this nation-with its two wings-still rests
today.

>>From our mothers to our teachers, to our partners in the workplace
and our partners at home, Armenian women continue to carry this
nation on their shoulders, while we, the men, stay busy showcasing
our muscles.

Not only should we acknowledge and treat them as equals, but we must
thank them for conceding to be equals with us.

This is not a message of feminism as much as it is a message that we
will grasp when we, as Armenians, look behind us and around us.

The Armenian Weekly March 3, 2007