Real walking stories
There are seven silhouettes looking like walking women in front of "Moscow" Cinema and they symbolize women who have been subjected to violence. Each of them presents a real story.
One of the women, 32-year old Shushan Mamyan, says her uncle kidnapped her so that she would be married to his son when she was 15 years old. Her future husband took hold of her by force and moved to a village. The husband prohibited her from having any contact with her parents or leaving the house. He always comes home drunk, beats her and now the children as well.
Armine Karapetyan, 27, says her mother-in-law and father-in-law frequently humiliate her. However, everything got worse when they found out that she was going to have a second child. They are forcing her to abort the child. Her husband is not able to go against their decision and is forcing her to go along with that.
As public relations correspondent of the Women's Rights Center Diana Sargsyan told "A1+", the stories were selected based on Hotline telephone calls and the names of women were simply changed.
"The purpose is to raise public awareness about family violence," said Sargsyan.
Although the center is only involved in women's issues, men also call the Hotline.
The exhibition is called "Let's respect women, let's put an end to violence". During the display, passers-by were given flyers and booklets about violence.
The center has a hotline in provinces as well, but women of the provinces are not too aware and are ashamed to raise their voices regarding their violated rights.
