Karine Danielyan: The women who prefer being mothers deserve the same
respect as female politicians

ArmInfo’s Interview with Karine Danielyan, Head of the Association for
Sustainable Human Development NGO

by Karina Manukyan
Saturday, March 7, 15:09

In 1991-94, you were the Nature Protection Minister of the Republic
of Armenia. Do you remember when you started tackling environmental
issues?

Before being appointed minister, I took an active part in an
environmental movement. As far as I remember, a decision was taken to
involve the movement activists in the Government. Moreover, a survey
was conducted at the relevant universities and institutes.

To be honest, I was not so much eager to become a minister, because I
was sure that a minister’s post was not for my temper. A year before
that, I was Vice Mayor of Yerevan and I managed to realize all the
difficulties of such activities. The ministerial position simply
became a disaster for me.

We should not forget what hard situation Armenia faced in the early
1990s. The Karabakh war, the energy crisis… It was almost impossible
to speak of nature protection and make the Government take some
decisions amid the war in Karabakh.

Say, they would release water from Lake Sevan for energy needs. I
would come to the Government and say, “What are you doing?” They would
reply, “Do you want the people to die? We cannot supply the population
with electric power even for 2 hours a day.”

In the meantime, we were able to involve Armenia in almost all the
international processes and to adopt some laws and by-laws… But in the
reality, it was very hard, if not impossible, to do the nature
protection minister’s job under those conditions.

I constantly felt distress. I did not sleep for almost 4 years – a
year at the Municipality and three years of work at the Government. I
was thinking all night long: there was no money, no fuel, no machines…
no monitoring could be conducted… As a result, I seriously fell ill
and left the Government.

You have said that you were afraid the minister’s position was not for
your temper. What aspects of your personality do you mean?

I do not like heavy-handed people at all. I prefer a friendly and
consensus-based method of management. On the one hand, that method has
a lot of advantages, but on the other hand, there always emerge people
who abuse that confidence and stop performing their duties. This leads
to a chaos. The best way out is to find the aurea mediocritas.

You are still engaged in active environmental activities. To put it
crudely, you have to fight with men to attain the goals set.

It is noteworthy that they constantly speak of discrimination against
women, but I have never felt that discrimination myself. I only felt
some discomfort when I attended the Government’s sessions and I was
the only woman there.

One day the then prime minister – I don’t even want to give his name –
reproached me undeservingly at a governmental session. I answered him
back. He said something else, and I answered him back again. It grew
into something unpleasant. Then he said, “So, what shall I do now?
Shall I apologize?” “As you wish,” I replied. During the break, all
the men approached me and said, “What kind of people, you, women, are!
You are reproaching and scolding us constantly, but you cannot stand
being reproached”.

And how do you manage to make the Government, the Parliament and the
Yerevan Municipality defer to your opinion?

Well, I cannot say they defer to my opinion so much. But my
professionalism plays a certain role, as a matter of fact.

Do you think the woman should be engaged in active public activities,
politics or do you believe she should make her choice in her family’s
favor?

I think there should be some women in the power structures to balance
the viewpoints and positions. On the other hand, in most cases, men
don’t want their wives to be stronger or to earn more money.
Certainly, some men perceive such activities of their wives quite
normally and they are proud of such women.

I believe that everything should be balanced. I respect the choice of
the women, who prefer being mothers and bringing up their kids rather
than being engaged in the politics, science, etc. Such women deserve
the same respect as the female politicians.

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