If I mistakenly articulate the word “gender”, it would mean that I have “attracted a grant” and urge all Armenian people to become homosexual. If I slip the word and articulate the phrase “domestic violence”, I have joined the “Judeo-Masonic conspiracy” hatched against the Armenian people and want to destroy all Armenian families, in particular, I want to take away the Armenian children from their parents.
But let’s digress for a moment from “Europe” and grants and answer a simple question: is domestic violence right or wrong? I think it is wrong, primarily because human social perceptions starting from birth (and even before birth) are shaped in the family. Not only the physical violence, the beatings, any rude word, any unfriendly glance is a wound that we cause to the child. And if we raise our hand or shout at the child, it is a direct way to create mental problems with our children. We allegedly are “educating” but actually with such raunchy methods we are trying to “cool our heart” and escape our own problems.
Domestic violence like any other violence it is based on the vacant conviction of a man that he is strong if he can force others to do so as they (the others) do not want to but he (the force user) wants. Because he knows what is right and good for others while others do not know it. In other words, the violence user is doing it allegedly driven by the “interests” of his victim.
Maximilian Voloshin wrote, “When you want to make people good and wise, tolerant and noble, then definitely the idea of killing them all arrives. Robespierre did believe in the virtue and created Terror. Marat believed in justice, therefore he demanded to behead 200 thousand people.” Hence, the slogan “what we do we do it for kids” seasoned with paternal or maternal slap is cynical and hypocritical. If our more “provincial” fellow citizens think that they have the right to apply to domestic violence (I repeat, not only physical), that it is their own business or that it is an “ancient Armenian tradition”, then the state has to work on this. Our state is not yet developed, it is poor and our officials are “weak-tempered” (in the sense of terms). I wish our government agencies were able to effectively defend the children, especially in the families where there are also social problems. But the weakness of the state in no way justifies the culture of violence which obtains a “heroic image” in some limited minds.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
