How are Armenians considering kartus ?
The main result of the short survey* conducted in Yerevan is that Armenian consider kartus as a part of the culture. Kartus are very respectful of traditions but never question them. In this sense they have very old-fashioned principles and expectations, for some Armenians there are some kartu traditions that can be saved, such as the respect of the family, but they need to adapt to social and societal changes.
One man interrogated expressed his surprise about our questionning: to him, kartus are an integral part of the Armenian society, and even though most Armenian consider them in a bad way, they still represent a non-negligible part of the population. He showed no interest in fighting such traditionalist behaviour: this is revealing of the fact that kartus are included as a part the culture which, even if it is bad, will not be questionned or reconsidered by the other parts of the population.
Women generally have a negative opinion of kartus, denouncing their lack of respect for women and their close-mindedness, and wishing they would not exist. Surprisingly enough though, some women share parts of the kartu way of thinking and thus participate into generalizing and justifying the stereotype: they don't consider themselves as equal to men, expect their husband to pay for their every expenses, and never question the fact that their sole role in the family will be to take care of their children and husband. This can also be a reason for the abundance of kartu presence in Armenia: if women are not repealled by their appearance and mentality, and if society is accepting them and even creating them, why should they change, nor even put their behaviour into question ?
What are kartus revealing about the situation of women in Armenia?
At first a source of curiosity and laughter, a study of kartus as a social phenomenon and specific subculture reveals a real issue: not the obvious mistreatment of hair and fashion, but the expression of a paternalist, machist and profoundly unequal society. Kartus are the living stereotype of traditionalist, sexist and homophobic men. The survey* showed that social roles of men and women are clearly defined. The man should always be the money and food provider, while the woman should keep herself to a caretaker role. All the kartus interrogated considered women in the same way: they are the most important person of the family, but they have to be subjected to her husband, and even though they can have a say in the decisions concerning the family, the man will always have the last word and the decision will be his. Kartus don't believe in gender equality: even the more open-minded of them, not considering that the woman should be submitted to the man in all cases, still believe that the man must have the last word.
Women are limitated to a caring role, when men have to be the ones working and bringing food on the table. This very traditionalist conception of gender roles is shared by most of Armenians, kartus or not. This is one of the reasons why women human rights defenders or women NGOs are under permanent attack for trying to «destroy the Armenian family». In a sense, this accusation is true: the Armenian model of family, as it is now, is too restrictive for women's rights. As such, it has to be modified and the change cannot be accomplished without a destruction of the previous model.
Most of the kartus consider out of question to include women in politics. But for some of them, a woman could even become President if she has the mind, the opportunity and the ability to do so. When asked to elaborate, kartus explained that if a woman wants to run for President, she should have a man's mentality. One of them gave the example of Angela Merkel, stating that she is a women with a men's mind. This is yet another proof that having a men's attribute (in this case, mental attribute) is the only way to acceed to high positions in the Armenian society: if a woman wants to succeed, she needs to be, in some way, similar as a man.
An interesting fact is that when asked if the women should be submitted to her husband, all men interrogated gave an answer, but none of them considered the question to be irrelevant. Submitting the life path of a women to her man's decision sounds normal to all men interrogated. None of them considered that the woman should decide for herself.
To some of the people interrogated, kartus or not, there is a social pressure on Armenian boys to act like kartus : the culture is such that they have no choice but being the sole provider of money in the household, they are expected to treat their wife as their possession and not as their equals, and should have all control of their wife's life. This machist culture is particularly shown in the legislation: Armenian human rights defenders have been fighting for years to include domestic violence in the Penal Code. Currently, criminal law is forbiding one to beat another, but there is no specification for domestic violence as such. If you consider as well the difficulty for a woman or a man victim of domestic violence to access justice and fair treatment by the law, you can see how machism is at the core of the society: once a woman gets married, the law will not protect her against the violences of her husband as a specific crime, different than one stranger beating another, and her husband will not be punished as much as he would be if domestic violence was punishable by the law.
Alysse Gerbault,
SWV intern, with the precious help of Inna Devkanc.
*The informal reserach have been carried out mong 30 persons between 15 and 30 years old in June 2015 in Yerevan center.