ARMENIA: FIGHT AGAINST GENDER-EQUALITY MORPHS INTO FIGHT AGAINST EU
EurasiaNet.org
Oct 11 2013
October 11, 2013 – 11:21am, by Marianna Grigoryan
Europe is getting a surprise bashing in Armenia over a law on
gender equality that many Armenians claim is designed to “promote”
homosexuality as a “European value.”
The strength of the backlash has prompted some political observers
to believe it is being artificially stoked in order to build popular
support for Yerevan’s decision last month to seek membership in
the Russia-led Customs Union at the expense of closer ties with the
European Union.
The law, titled On Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men
and Women, was first mulled in 2009 and went into effect in June
with the broad aim of enforcing gender equality in all aspects of
daily life and outlawing gender discrimination. That may sound like
business-as-usual among EU members, but for Armenian society, where
men generally receive pride of place, it quickly sparked pushback.
Opponents have relied on scare tactics. Social media campaigns against
the gender equality law used images of young men wearing garish
make-up and transgender couples kissing each other to call for a fight
against “warped Western values,” and to “maintain family values.” The
campaigns also featured videos and articles that claim, incorrectly,
legislation in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden allows for incest
and pedophilia, and strongly encourages same-sex marriages. Such
legislation, the advocates added, could be in store for Armenia.
The fear-mongering efforts hinge on the law’s definition of “gender” in
Article 3 as “acquired, socially fixed behavior of different sexes.” To
many Armenians, the word “acquired” is seen as code for homosexuality.
Although the backlash against the law began almost as soon as it
was adopted, it seemed to intensify after President Serzh Sargsyan
announced in early September that Armenia was ready to join the
Kremlin-led Customs Union.
At a September 9 press-conference, Archimandrite Komitas Hovnanian,
a prominent figure within the Armenian Apostolic Church, warned that
“[a] new religious movement is being formed which campaigns for
homosexuality, pedophilia, incest and other immoral things.”
“Everybody should be concerned with this,” Hovnanian instructed
journalists. “If we are Armenians, we have to take steps to prevent
this decadent phenomenon.”
Some MPs have proposed amendments to remove from the law references
to the word “gender,” but the suggestion has done nothing to lessen
the intensity in the debate. On October 11, one Facebook group
planned to march in Yerevan against the gender law and so-called
“European values.”
The term has become a catch-all that embraces not only equal rights for
women – itself highly controversial for this conservative, patriarchal
society – but tolerance toward same-sex marriages and any sexual
minorities; anathema for most people living in the South Caucasus.
By contrast, Russia, which recently passed a law banning so-called
“homosexual propaganda,” is seen as a more virtuous model for
emulation.
“Armenian traditions and European values are very hard to combine. If
Europe accepts homosexualism and same-sex marriages, this does not
mean that they are acceptable for traditional Armenian families,”
commented sociologist Aharon Adibekian. “So, this is the main reason
for the approach displayed by society.”
He cautioned that the backlash against Europe has been brewing ever
since Armenia, in the 1990s, pledged to sign international agreements
to defend the rights of minorities.
While the anti-gender-equality campaign may seem extreme to outsiders,
it has had an impact. Leda Hovhannisian, a 38-year-old Yerevan
resident with a secondary-school level of education, says that,
despite the potential advantages for finding a well-paying job, she
now is horrified at the thought of her 16-year-old son ever going to
study in Europe or the United States.
“No, by no means! I would never want my child to travel to those
places where drug addiction, homosexuality and other forms of abuse are
widespread,” she stressed. “We hear about it every day. God forbid! I
would never allow him to go there.”
Others assail the campaign as nonsensical. “Unfortunately, many
people don’t even realize that this is a result of misinformation,”
commented 26-year-old computer programmer Emma Babaian.
Some administration critics believe that Facebook-spread warnings that
“the wind of perversion blows from the West” reveal an ulterior motive
on the part of authorities. Sargsyan’s administration, they contend,
wants to bolster public support for its decision to opt for Russia’s
economic embrace, rather than the EU’s. Officials in Brussels have said
an association agreement between the EU and Armenia is incompatible
with Yerevan’s looming membership in the Customs Union.
“This was a carefully planned campaign, which was followed by the
recent heavy criticism over European values, as well as adoption of
the gender equality law which evoked fury among society, and all these
factors were exploited to discredit Europe,” argued Stepan Safarian,
secretary of the opposition, pro-Western Heritage Party.
Galust Sahakian, deputy chair of the governing Republican Party of
Armenia and head of its parliamentary faction, dismissed the notion.
“This is absurd,” Sahakian responded. “The law on gender equality has
nothing to do with diplomacy” and efforts to encourage public support
for the Customs Union. “They should not connect it either to Europe,
or to diplomacy, Russia or the whole world.”
Editor’s note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in
Yerevan and editor of MediaLab.am.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67620