MEN PARTICIPATE IN NDI WOMEN'S FORUM FOR THE FIRST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 001364

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CARC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PGOV KWMN AM
SUBJECT: MEN PARTICIPATE IN NDI WOMEN'S FORUM FOR THE FIRST
TIME

REF: YEREVAN 946

Classified By: Poloff Masha Herbst for reasons 1.4 (b, d).

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) The National Democratic Institute (NDI)'s fifth
Women's Forum featured male speakers for the first time. The
male politicians -- one pro-government, one opposition -- had
mastered some progressive sound bites, but were far from
fully egalitarian. Nonetheless, there has been some
progress. Since March, 22 political parties have committed
to increasing the percentage of women on their political
party lists from the 15 percent mandated by the Electoral
Code to 25 percent, and an opposition parliament member has
agreed to introduce the initiative in the National Assembly
in mid-October. END SUMMARY

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MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN SHOULD VOTE FOR WOMEN
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2. (U) Though ostensibly from opposite sides of the political
spectrum, Hrayr Karapetian of the governing coalition
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) party and
Khorosov Harutyunian of the opposition Christian Democratic
Union had essentially the same message for the forum
participants: Women's political participation is a good
thing, but not necessarily here in Armenia, not necessarily
now, and not necessarily outside of women's forums. "We
should create an environment for women to become active in
politics," Karapetian said. He followed that statement with
an impassioned speech about the need to preserve Armenian
traditions and the "unique definition of the Armenian woman."
(COMMENT: Webster's dictionary somehow fails to elucidate
this definition for us. END COMMENT)


3. (U) Harutyunian took a less progressive view, saying the
first task for Armenian society was to understand whether
women's political participation were really necessary, and
adding that many Armenians would say it was not necessary.
He went on to say that there were "objective reasons" that
kept the number of women in politics low, such as the fact
that a woman's place really was in the home. On the other
hand, he said, perhaps if there were more women in power,
there would be less corruption. Harutyunian singled out one
forum attendee, Ruzanna Khachatrian, an opposition party
politician who ran for local government against a powerful
incumbent in a central Yerevan district in 2005. "I myself
did not vote for her," Harutyunian said, "but you women
should have." Both Harutyunian and Karapetian's parties have
agreed to the Women's Forum's 25 percent quota initiative,
(see paragraph 4 below),but both men advocated against it,
saying that increased political participation among women
should be organic, and that society isn't ready for it. The
two men conveniently left before the question and answer
period brought to light the women's views on the subject --
which in fact were quite mixed.


4. (U) The Women's Forum came up with a quota initiative in
March, to expand and give teeth to a legal requirement that
women be included on the party lists. The Electoral Code now
requires that 15 percent of each party's proportional
representation (party list) candidates for the National
Assembly be women. The law does not specify that the women
be high enough on the lists actually to have a meaningful
shot at getting elected. This rule created an instant
tradition that the bottom 15 percent of every party's list
(e.g. the candidates who will never be elected short of an
unprecedented electoral landslide) is comprised of women.
The Women's Forum's 25 percent initiative stipulates that
every fourth name on each party's list should be a woman.
Twenty-two parties have promised to observe this principle
when drawing up their lists for the May 2007 elections, but
implementation of this voluntary rule remains to be seen.
Among those who have not signed on to the initiative: the
Republican Party, which is the dominant member of the ruling
coalition, and opposition Orinats Yerkir.

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POLITICAL CONFIDENCE VARIES AMONG WOMEN
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5. (C) Reactions were divided among forum participants, who
included roughly 150 women political party members, NGO
staff, businesswomen and government employees. Ruzanna
Khachatrian, perhaps miffed at Harutyunian's dismissal of her
as a candidate worthy only of women's votes, railed back at

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the by-now absent party leader during the comment portion of
the event, eliciting laughter when she said it was "just like
a man to say something about women, and then escape."
Khachatrian, who is press secretary to the People's Party of
Armenia's Stepan Demirchian, disagreed that women lose
elections because their
demographic doesn't step up to the ballot box. She, and many
other women, blamed unfair elections for the lack of women in
government. Khachatrian also was one of the more grounded
and sober women who spoke. She said that, while it certainly
wasn't a bad thing that 22 parties had accepted the 25
percent quota, the one party that mattered, the ruling
Republicans, had not. Khachatrian said that forum members
could celebrate their success only after the Republicans
accepted the quota. (NOTE: According to NDI Co-Director
Taline Sanassarian, that won't happen anytime soon. Not long
after NDI approached the parties to accept the non-binding
quota initiative, a woman MP from the Republicans paid a
visit to Sanassarian and told her that the Republicans would
never adopt such a "stupid" initiative. END NOTE.)


6. (C) While Khachatrian is among a small percentage of women
who believe that Armenian women are ready for political
participation right now, many others are less certain,
Sanassarian said. She said the bulk of the forum members
believed women were not yet ready to participate, or that
only some women were ready to participate. She said despite
the lack of widespread political confidence, the Women's
Forum had made great strides in creating a sustainable
network of women who are interested in the political process,
and in building confidence to inspire some of them to
consider becoming political leaders.


7. (C) The 25 percent quota initiative is one example of the
success of the forum, Sanassarian said, even if it doesn't
make its way into the Electoral Code, because it was an
organic product of the Women's Forum. The opposition
Democratic Party's Aram Sargsian has agreed to propose the
initiative as a change in the Electoral Code in mid-October.
Sanassarian also said that, whether or not the initiative
becomes law, the number of women in politics will increase if
the 22 parties actually follow through on their promise to
put women in every fourth slot on their party rolls.

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COMMENT
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8. (C) Though the male party leaders said some of the right
things, their underlying attitude towards the role of women
in politics was clear, and it reflects the mentality of a
majority of voting public. According to the results of an
August 2006 Gallup Poll commissioned by the International
Republican Institute, many others agree: Nearly two-thirds of
poll respondents -- 53 percent of which were women -- said
that, all other things being equal, they would vote for a man
over a woman, while only six percent said they would vote for
the woman, and 28 percent said it did not matter. Given the
biases ingrained in Armenian society, the chance that the
National Assembly will adopt the 25 percent initiative is
slim. Small but substantive change is possible, however, if
the parties that signed on to the initiative honor their
promises.
GODFREY