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ARS Fully Supports Domestic Violence Bill in Armenia
WATERTOWN, Mass.—Earlier this month, Armenian authorities announced a domestic violence bill in Parliament. The proposed law aims to introduce criminal and administrative liability with regard to domestic violence in Armenia. On Oct. 24, the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) International issued the following statement on the proposed bill.
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Working towards reducing violence for men, women, animals is a must. However, introducing “gender equality” as an issue where none exists is a dangerous slippery slope. In general it does nothing but divides a culture quickly leading to its inglorious end.
I am one of the two co-chairs of the American Armenian Alliance Against Domestic Violence initiated by Virginia Apelian post her fact-finding mission to Yerevan. I wholeheartedly support your statement. Alluding to “gender equality” when laws are gender neutral puzzles me unless there are laws in Armenia, such as inheritance, that is skewed in favor of male offspring. But I doubt laws in Armenia, mostly enacted during the Soviet era, are skewed in favor of one gender over the other. Laws against domestic abuse, by their very nature, apply to both genders as abusers are not necessarily only husbands but at times it’s the female members of the family, such as mother-in-laws, who engage in such despicable acts.
An issue where none exists? How so, when several women came forward telling their stories, how they were beaten, in some cases severely, by their husbands; when several women DIED from the abuse? If there is no issue, then the law will have no harmful effect. But if there is an issue, it will protect wives and mothers from abusive husbands. Is this not what Armenian culture stands for?