Nare Hayrapetyan, founder and executive director of the Resource Center for Women’s Empowerment NGO, has been selected for the Susan Treadwell Memory Award (STMA) by The Open Society Initiative for Europe and the Mediterranean Women’s Fund (MedWF), among sixteen feminist activists from all over Europe. She was the first from Armenia to receive this award. Nare Hayrapetyan’s candidacy was nominated by the Women’s Fund Armenia, considering her activities and unwavering commitment to the feminist movement in Armenia.
***
Nare Hayrapetyan has been involved in activism since she was a teenager, starting at the age of 15 by raising environmental issues in Armenia. According to her, it was during that period that she became interested in civil activism.
Nare recalls with a smile how she stumbled upon the field to which she is now devoted with her entire being. “In Armenia, there aren’t many choices when it comes to your profession, especially if you’re a girl with financial difficulties. I applied to a faculty where there was a better chance of receiving free education. Sociology was somewhat a random choice,” she says. She adds that during her student years, while actively participating in civil and environmental movements, she realized that social problems are at the root of all global issues, making her profession not so randomly chosen after all. “In fact, it was what I wanted to do and loved. That’s how my establishment in this field proceeded in a very natural way,” Nare says with a smile.
During her activities, Nare Hayrapetyan realized that there are many gaps in gender and women’s issues in regional communities outside of Yerevan. “Ministries and various organizations operating in Yerevan were interested in women’s and gender issues in our community, but no one was addressing these issues. Therefore, I naturally transitioned to women’s issues by founding the Women’s Empowerment Resource Center NGO in 2019,” she says.
When a young woman tries to engage in social or political activities in any small community in Armenia, especially involving women’s and gender issues, she encounters various difficulties and has to fight against various stereotypes in addition to her main work, to prove every day that her work and activities are “legitimate,” so to speak. “It is already difficult for a young woman to engage in social activities in a village or any small community, but when you start dealing with women’s issues, it becomes like an action movie,” Nare says with a laugh, emphasizing that although it is still difficult, it was much more difficult 5 years ago. “Not only the residents of the community, but also the Local Self-Government Bodies had a stereotypical and ambiguous attitude. Neighbors were constantly interfering with us. That pressure is always there: when you’re a women’s organization, people are always skeptical, avoidant, or take specific actions against you,” she says. She adds that in such cases, time often puts everything in its place, as people get to know you over time and realize that you are not engaged in harmful activities, and over time people’s attitudes begin to change. According to Nare, people who once mistreated them are now using the NGO’s services, which, according to her, is a very big achievement. “The burden of activists dealing with women’s issues is very heavy, because we are always under a microscope,” she emphasizes.
According to the head of the NGO, when working in regional communities, one must be much more patient and restrained, because especially in rural communities there is a gap of tens of years of unfinished work, which cannot be filled in a few weeks or months. “It’s not that I’m giving up my principles and ideas, it’s just that the approaches and forms of communication are different in those cases. Changes may come later than expected: one, two, or five years later. You have to have a lot of patience if you come into this field,” she says.
As Nare points out, social activities consume a lot of physical and psychological energy. There were extreme periods in her life when she was in such a difficult physical and mental condition that she thought about leaving the public sphere. “During that time, I went through a personal tragedy and connected that desperate situation with my activity. I spent a year thinking about it, adjusting my physical and mental condition, but after a year I realized that I want to continue and I promised myself that this will not happen again. I wanted to return to the place where I felt very good and helpful for humanity. Even now, of course, there are outbursts when I’m very tired and exhausted, but I soon forget all that because I love everything I do,” she says.
According to Nare Hayrapetyan, the success stories of their beneficiaries inspire and help her to continue her activities. “I like to see concrete results from my work, so that I can continue my work with new momentum and enthusiasm. When you see every rescued woman, you see how, as a result of your work, women subjected to domestic violence get up from scratch, start a new life, you become very excited and happy. It gives me strength to continue my work,” she emphasizes.
Referring to her life outside of work, Nare says in an enthusiastic voice. “It is very difficult for a working person to combine work and personal life, having a family. For me, work is a priority. People like me who don’t consider the official 09:00-18:00 work hours, it is very difficult to combine, because you have to constantly make sacrifices. In any case, no matter how pathetic it may sound, you should try to keep the balance. I’m glad that now I can do both.”
During the conversation, when Nare described the various directions of their organization’s activities, I tried not to lose my sense of reality, knowing in advance how small the organization’s staff is. Like other women’s organizations in Armenia, The Resource Center for Women’s Empowerment NGO also has a serious problem of resources, which is why they have to do a lot of work with a small team. Nare personally considers this to be the strongest aspect of their organization. “We do a lot of work with a small team in a short time. I’m also proud of the fact that we do not say “no” to any beneficiary, no matter how difficult it is for us,” she says.
One can talk about Nare’s dedication to work for a long time and give many examples as proof, but perhaps it is enough to mention the fact that with her personal resources and a small fundraising, she acquired own space for the organization, which now provides them with more freedom and independent activity, due to which the organization does not depend on any community or political structure.
Along with public activities, Nare Hayrapetyan was also engaged in politics for a short period. In the Parliamentary elections of 2018, she was nominated as a deputy candidate in the Kotayk marz using the rating electoral system.
“For as long as I can remember, I have always fought against social injustice and when we monitored the work of community bodies as an initiative, I often saw political processes there and thought that maybe I should become a part of it all and try to change them from the inside. During that time, I joined the “Citizen’s Decision” social-democratic party. I was one of the founding members. People concerned about the issues of the country gathered there, for me it was primarily a gathering of like-minded people. That period lasted a short time, about a year and a half, because when I was already inside the party, I realized that there are many issues that I cannot solve as I thought from the beginning. During that time, I also realized that the social issues that I wanted to solve through the party can be solved faster when I am in the public sector. It was just an interesting experience for me. I thought that if I am in politics, I will “turn the world upside down”, then I realized that no, I will “turn the world upside down” again, but in the field where my true place is!,” she says.
Nare’s vision of changes is always to strive for social justice. “I think, social justice is the basis of everything, including living peacefully without wars,” she emphasizes.
According to Nare, her strengths are patience, humanism, and altruism, which always help her move forward to achieve the goals she has set for herself. “Years later, I will continue to do the same work. I will try to expand the resources of the organization so that we can do more projects. I also think that we will expand in other communities,” she says with a firm tone of voice.
During the entire conversation, although we were talking about Nare’s activities and about her in general, the conversation, all the same, was mainly about work. At the end of the conversation, it turned out that Nare loves music and can sing jazz. She was even a member of a jazz band during her student years. She briefly says that she would like to practice singing if she has free time in the future. “Maybe later I’ll try to develop my abilities, go to vocal lessons, why not, I can try,” says Nare.
When I asked her if she had the opportunity to go back in time and choose, which field would she choose: social or… “Social, always,” Nare immediately answers the question without hearing the question to the end and continues: “The social sphere will always be the priority of my life. Apart from that, whatever I do, it will always be secondary, which I will do only when I have free time.”
Yelena Sargsyan
