Where Have the Women Gone?

The voices of women writers occupy a small space in the Armenian literary canon. They are for the most part absent in literature textbooks in Armenia with the exception of Silva Kaputikyan and a few other women writers who are mentioned only in passing. Kaputikyan, who lived and created during the Soviet era, wrote many poems, short stories and memoirs. Only a handful of her literary works appear in those textbooks, while male writers such as Avetik Isahakyan, Yeghishe Charents, Nar Dos and many others feature prominently. The literary heritage of progressive Armenian women writers of the last century is largely ignored.

Lerna Ekmekcioglu, Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently gave a public talk at the American University of Armenia about feminist Armenian writers. Ekmekcioglu unveiled the women writers of the early 20th century in Constantinople who were not only writers, but also founders of women’s organizations, women’s magazines, directors of orphanages, political activists, etc. They were novelists and poets, quite famous in their times, yet hardly mentioned today. These women were writing about social issues, questioning the role of women in politics, in education, in families. They were breaking new ground and challenging their place in the Armenian reality with courage that is hard to comprehend a century later.

Who were these women writers? 

Zaruhi Kalemkiarian (1874-1971)
She was born in Constantinople and moved to New York in 1921 where she lived until her passing. Zaruhi was a literary prodigy, who at the age of 16 had already published her first book of poems. She would sometimes go by her pen name Yevterpe. She was the first to begin a women’s section in one of the newspapers in Istanbul. She also published three  works of prose, “A Book for My Grandson,” “My Life’s Journey” and “Days and Profiles.” Today, there is no evidence in literature textbooks that Zarouhi Kalemkerian ever existed.

Zarouhi Bahri (1880-1958)

A contemporary and colleague of Kalemkerian, Zarouhi Bahri was an essayist and novelist, also head of orphanages and one of the founders of the Armenian Red Cross in Constantinople. During the vorpahavak (gathering of orphans), she was asked by Patriarch Zaven Der Yeghiayan to assist as director of a Neutral House orphanage “where women and children of contested identities were sheltered until their true identities were determined.” (Ekmekcioglu, L., A Climate for Abduction, A Climate for Redemption)  Following the Genocide, a concerted campaign was undertaken by Armenians to find and liberate women and children who had been abducted and placed in Muslim homes. During the 1940s, Bahri wrote four novels including Khavarin mej (In the Darkness) and Parandzem.

This is not an exhaustive list to be sure, it is the tip of the iceberg. There are many other writers such as Zabel Asadur (Sibil), Hayganush Mark, Mari Beyleryan, Vardui Nalbandyan, and those who are slightly better known – Zabel Yesayan, Shushanik Kurghinian, Srpouhi Dussap… The problems and issues these women writers were facing and presenting in their writing were connected with the right to paid employment, equal representation, the right to education, the right to divorce. They were critical of Armenian traditions that put women in secondary positions. Their goal was not about eliminating traditions, but reshaping them so that women would be able to have equal opportunities as men. They were not promoting “sameness” they simply wanted equality.

These writers were trying to break prevailing stereotypes. Unfortunately, some of these traditions remain in Armenian culture, and women continue to struggle for equal space both in Armenia and the Diaspora. While much has changed over the course of the last century and women do have more opportunities today, however, the secondary status of women still exists in Armenian consciousness.

Shushan Avagyan, a writer, translator and professor at the American University of Armenia is the author of the experimental novels Girk-Anvernagir (Book, Untitled, 2006) and Zarubyani Kanayq (The Women of Zarubyan, 2014). Regarding the absence of women writers in school curricula, Avagyan says that perhaps editors of the textbook “either don’t have much information about women writers, or are not much interested or they don’t deem these writers to be important enough to include in textbooks.”

Most of the content included in the textbooks are about patriarchy, God and war. Only few of the texts are concerned with social issues and perhaps, these women writers are not included in the textbooks because their works do not correspond to textbook criterias. Perhaps the absence of women were not considered worthy of research and inclusion in the study of Armenian literature.

Diana Hambardzumyan, a writer, translator and professor at the Yerevan State Linguistic University after V. Brusov, author of the novel Dury Takum En (Knock on the Door , 2014,) Heragir Fatimayin  (Telegram To Fatima, 2014)  and several other books, says that since Zabel Yesayan’s time many things have changed in the world. “I don’t think that there was any reason for editors of textbooks to have negative attitudes towards these women writers,” she said. “During my years of education in the Soviet era, in our textbooks we had many Western Armenian writers, including Zabel Yesayan, Sibil, etc.”

In an interview to “Grakan Tert” in 2014, the head of the National Institute of Education Aram Nazaryan said that following independence, textbooks for public schools were basically following the same criteria instituted during the Soviet era and it was only in 2005, that new criteria were established. During the Soviet period, information, communication and education were tightly controlled and yet today, when we no longer have state-sanctioned censorship and have freedom, we choose to exclude the women writers who were included before.

Anush Aslibekyan, writer of several plays, poems and short stories, author of Bari Galust im Heqiat (Welcome to my Fairytale, 2009) and Moiraneri Notateric (From Moira’s Notebook, 2014) professor at the Institute of Theater and Cinematography, stresses the role of traditions which put women in limited positions. “It is not acceptable for an Armenian woman to…” or “Armenian women should not do this” or “Armenian women must be this way” and many other endless stereotypes of “do’s and “don’t’s” that have nothing to do with the real Armenian woman, Aslibekyan says. This mindset creates artificial and unnecessary obstacles for women who want to move forward in society, which also includes being a professional writer. “And while women are trying to fight with these stereotypes, men, on the other hand, are gaining more and more opportunities, letting women stay in the same positions,” adds Aslibekyan.

Primary public education is the source of our collective information and knowledge. Ask anyone in Armenia to name an Armenian woman writer and most will only say Silva Kaputikyan. Surely, it is the student, the reader who will continue to search for and read other works of writers spurred through inspiration or knowledge, but the question lingers, why only one woman in one textbook?