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Ani Jilozian

Ani Jilozian

Ani Jilozian is a women’s rights advocate with a master's degree in global public health from the Icahn School of Public Health at Mount Sinai. Ani works as Director of Development at the Women's Support Center, the premiere domestic violence center in Armenia. In her role at the Center, Ani has led gender-based violence programming and published research studies that examine gender-based violence, women's sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender politics in Armenia. She is also involved in high-level advocacy and has contributed to shadow and alternative reports.

5 Comments

  1. “UN has determined”… what a joke. Another hit piece on Armenia. “Women’s Support Center” – and yet another “Open Society” Soros project run by gullible Armenians who got blinded by a “career” scam. Meanwhile they have no clue what their “career choice” is leading to and the ramifications for Armenia.

    Curious at some of you Americans moving to Armenia for “personal and not patriotic” reasons: why didn’t you ever feel the need to clean up your home country first, but instead are too eager to use the weaponized tools of that same country to apply it to Armenia… expecting a revolution through “social change”?

    At the expense of Armenian identity and culture of course, but hey, “who cares as long as we are getting paid and making our bosses proud”. And to this I say, thank God for Armenia’s security services and thank God for all those patriotic Armenians holding our last bastion of land with an iron grip and keeping hope alive for worldwide Armenian patriots.

    • Hagop, I would encourage more people who have a passion for social justice to be engaged in the real issues Armenia faces. Would Armenia be a better place if all we did was pour money and effort into its security services? No, of course not. There are a number of issues that Armenia, like every country, faces. Maybe if we stopped to get to know each other and worked together, instead of attacking one another for not being “patriotic” enough, we would actually find common ground. No one in Armenia who works for a small NGO is doing it for the money. That comment alone makes it clear that you’re quite far removed from what’s going on on the ground. If the “ramifications” of lobbying to the UN is that they, in turn, make the government accountable for their lack of commitment to women, children, and all marginalized populations in the country, then I think that’s doing a lot more for the country than writing an ignorant comment. Good luck to you & all your endeavors. I hope you are doing good work that helps your community. I mean that sincerely.

  2. @Ani, I am all for social justice, provided it is constructive. I am just not for it when there are strings attached, where those strings lead to a dark, dirty corner of western politics. Sorry, I am not in the least bit impressed with most of these western NGOs. They may claim to be “non-governmental” but that does not mean they are non-political.

    “If the “ramifications” of lobbying to the UN is that they, in turn, make the government accountable for their lack of commitment to women, children, and all marginalized populations in the country…”

    Is this the same UN which only last week booted Russia from the Human Rights Council and replaced the spot with none other than… SAUDI ARABIA!? You know, that country which is probably the absolute worse in the world from the women’s rights perspective. This has to be the joke of the decade.

    Armenia might not be perfect perfect, and I would welcome social justice at any time, but provided it is not foreign funded from the likes of characters like Soros. I don’t welcome a western political agenda in the guise of “social justice”. Before I knew anything about Soros, and the neocon-western agenda, I also thought that the intent was to help, and that these peaceful revolutions were a good thing to make things better. Remember the old American adage: “There is no such thing as a free lunch”. This is no different.

    Holding the government accountable for Yezidi girls who quit school to get married is also questionable. Firstly, the government wants to stay sensitive to the Yezidi community so that they can practice their culture the way they want. After all that is exactly why we have a Yezidi community in the first place, not to mention that Yezidis have their own community leaders. (I can just imagine it… once the government actually brings in “western morals” to the Yezidi community, next we will see articles outlining how the government of Armenia is actually now ‘oppressing’ the minorities… yawn).

    And second, how do you know what these people go through from their day-to-day lives to be making conclusions about what the government needs to do, and worse, what they themselves need to do? Maybe for these Yezidi girls an executive position with AT&T must be waiting for them straight out of high school and they missed it? I’m always amazed about people going to Armenia from comfortable and wealthy countries and magically expecting everyone living there to conform to their own vision and lifestyle, as if all the same level of education, jobs, security and economy exist there.

    I’m not trying to knock you for doing your part in helping Armenia. If you can do something positive and make a difference, then good for you. But your approach is hostile and divisive. Just take a look at your headline, which I found to be offensive to start with. It’s something one would read straight out of an Azeri “news” site. For people trying to make positive changes to Armenia, the first thing that needs to be shown is sincerity. I am not saying you are insincere in your intent, but your approach perhaps needs revisiting.

  3. Personally I’m not pro-western, yet there is great number of victims of domestic violence in Armenia. The same men are victims of domestic violence when they were children. They have been beaten as children by their fathers, they have been silent witnesses of violence against their mothers and they could do nothing and some grew into violent adults. Beating, mistreating women is not a family value. The true family values are love, care and respect.

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