Road to…
All people are born free and have equal rights regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, culture, and religion.
Oh come on!
Let’s agree that this “Universal Truth’’ sounds perfect in the written form rather than it actually works in the real world. Digging deeply into some eye-catchy facts, I can confidently say that there are various unique experiences of discrimination and oppression accross the globe that marginalise people.
So what kind of prejudices does Armenian society have against Intersectionality?
Armenia is at a very early stage of its journey to fight against the all forms of discrimination. I’m not talking about the institutional framework established in our country. Not at all. There are some limited laws and regulations aimed to protect all vulnerable groups of Armenia.
My concern is people…and more or less their “Natural Rights”.
There are various discriminative factors in Armenia originating from our social constructions, roles and responsibilities, norms, behaviors, and expectations.
Armenians are very judgmental with their nature. And yes this kind of dangerous nonsense for all of us. We are not that indifferent towards differences in people: sexism, racism, homophobia, bigotry and more discriminative aspects are part of our toxic society.
For many years, quite a lot of individuals were labelled for basically who they are, and for sure those labels negatively reflected on their identities and perceptions. Armenians tend to give prejudices in favor of majorities and easily outcast those that are inconvenient for this so called normative system. Deep down we always feel kind of inferior and superior to some minority groups. And honestly this inadequate and unreasonable behavior is just a portrayal of egoistic alturism. The anger and rage that we hold inside us is the main stimule that elicit massive discrimination practices in Armenia. So why do we have to belittle someone for his personal beliefs and values?
“Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.” ―Thomas Cirignano
We don’t choose where to be born, who our families are, and which personality type to have…
Just take a step back and think before you belittle someone. Because we are all the same! it’s just the circumstances that we have no control over that dictate. And that’s why today we face this Armenia, where hate crime and hate speech are still widespread in every part of our country. The loud violent calls that we make only affect our mindset and perspectives. So teach your children, parents, sisters and brothers tolerance towards other people. Respect and love differences, cherish the uniqueness and giftedness of every person, accept them the way they are and encourage them to value themselves.
I was just thinking about what are the reasons for this massive hatred in Armenia and eventually I relied on some logical “maybe”s.
The root cause of this hatred in our society is the idea of a change. In most cases, usually, we Armenians think that a change has to be always negative. But it’s not true. We struggle way too hard to keep our society on the same page as it was before. And that’s when we lose our connection with reality. Everything and everybody needs a change at different stages of life. Be calm, be collected. Change is inevitable. There are moments of agony in a change, moments of pain and tears in a change, sadness in a change, but so much hope in a change.
