Two Women Trapped by Desertion and Poverty

Susanna Shahnazaryan
Goris Press Club

Syunik---over the last years, new economic relations in Armenia have had their impact on the status of women, who have become the most sensitive targets of social tension; against the background of general unemployment and mass labor migration of men, women have been left with the responsibility of taking care of the entire family. Poverty has made many women seek ways of somehow improving their families’ well-being. In such circumstances, women often answer ads for jobs abroad. Many women get caught in a net of violence, are deceived, kidnapped, sold or forced to prostitute themselves.
According to Ashot Ghahramnyan, Head of Syunik Regional Police Department, no cases of trafficking were recorded in Syunik but there is information about women going abroad and doing prostitution. “It is not known whether they were forced or did it of their own will”, he said, adding that over the last months the police have been more aware of this issue and tried to prevent it by all possible means.
It is hard to evaluate what government officials say concerning the absense of recorded cases. I was not satisfied with the statement of the chief of police department to the effect that no cases have been recorded in Syunik. I decided to try to see whether local women had been subjected to trafficking.
Trade in human beings, their illegal exploitation and abuse are all crimes. However, who is really responsible for the ruined futures of the trafficking victims?
I learned about two cases involving victims of trafficking. Both were rescued and managed to change their lives.
…. The woman I was talking to was approximately 70. Her voice trembled as she spoke, and she was constantly worried that someone might overhear us: in a small community everyone would know what had happened. While telling her story, she sometimes got angry or emotional. She did not place all the blame on her daughter for what had happened. Her daughter got married. The family organized a traditional Armenian wedding. A year later she already had a grandchild. Her son in-law was unemployed, so he left for Krasnodar and … never came back. The young woman had a younger brother and sister as well as the baby to support, so she applied for all kinds of jobs. One day she left for Yerevan and came back two and a half months later. “When my daughter was back, she looked really exhausted and skinny. She was irritable and depressed. She brought a little money so that we could buy some flour and two liters of oil. One day she started crying and told me that she had gone to Dubai and had been forced into prostitution there. I could not forgive her. She left the baby with me, and went away. I sent the kid to a boarding school. What else could I do? I myself have two little kids.”
The fact that L. had chosen to abandon her child and to go away because of social conditions where she lived is obvious, but in order to understand how it happenned, I had to meet her. At last I tracked her down to one of the restaurants in outskirts of the capital city.
“…. My daughter was not born yet, when my husband left for Russia to find a job” L. told me. “When the baby was born, they didn’t want to let me out of the hospital because I did not have money to pay for their service. I did not hear anything from my husband for two years. Our condition was getting worse and worse every day. My baby and I became a burden for my parents and their large family. We did not get any welfare. They said that my husband was in Russia and could send us some money, and that my mother had a cow and therefore shouldn’t receive anything as well. For many days my baby, little brother and sister were had only tea without sugar. One day I found out from M. that there was a job opportunity in Yerevan, an underwear commercial. I thought that I should try. Those who offered me the job had a condition: because I had no work experience at all, I had to be trained abroad. My papers were ready so soon that I did not even manage to go back home; they said we were going for two weeks. There were three other girls. One was only 16 years old. I did not know anything about Dubai. In the airport a grey car was waiting for us. It took us to a hotel. We wished to stay in one room, all four of us, but they refused and said that we needed a good rest so we look well for the upcoming training. It was the last time I saw the girls. In the morning a man of medium height came into my room, he said several words in Russian and I understood that I should follow him. While we were going downstairs, I saw other girls being accompanied by men. Several men touched my cheeks and breasts. I was shocked. Soon we entered a room with a disgusting smell of a sauna. The door closed. I could not even see who was in the room.
“When I was taken back to my room, I tried to come out into the corridor in order to find my girlfriends. The door was locked. Two entire months passed like that. There were some days when I had to “serve” 20-30 men. No, they did not beat me, I was very scared and had to accept all the humiliations. An old man who worked at the hotel helped me to escape by magic. I came back to Armenia, told my mother what had happened to me; she did not believe that I had been forced to do this. I had to come back to Yerevan, tried to find a job but didn’t succeed. I began thinking that I was useless and turned back to the same trade. Sometimes I visit my hometown to see my daughter from a distance: my mother does not let me see her. I sent them a little money once but she didn’t accept. It’s a little bit easier in a big city; in a small community where everybody knows you, it’s hard to forget about one’s past. I don’t want my daughter ever to find out about me. They all blame me but do not blame my husband who left and never came back”.
The second woman I talked to was only 19 years old. The only thing she remembers from her childhood is her parents arguing all the time. When she was 15 her father was arrested for rape. They started to avoid her at school and in the streets, the circle of her friends narrowed. She graduated from school in Goris. She dreamed of becoming a teacher. She made the decision on her own and left for Yerevan. She stayed with her uncle’s family. There were still two weeks left till the admission examinations. Every evening she would go out into the garden. She met girls who knew nothing about her, and for them she was just a pretty girl. One of the girls invited her to watch a soap-opera at her place. When the hostess found out that she wanted to become a teacher she said: “What’s the use, teachers don’t make any money nowadays”. She offered her to go abroad together with her daughter, so that they would get paid really well. She didn’t even let her discuss it with her uncle’s wife; she took the girl’s passport and prepared the necessary documents in several days. The day of departure approached and it turned out that the woman’s daughter was ill, but so that she is not alone, she would be accompanied by other girls. Frankly speaking, she began to regret having accepted the offer, but she had already taken her papers from the admissions committee of the institute and given her passport to the “kind” woman.
“When my father was arrested, I was ashamed to go to school. Although I didn’t know that girl, I was very sorry for her having become my father’s victim. I was thinking that I would kill myself if that happened to me. How could I know that after a while I would be in the same situation? When we left for Dubai, myself and two other girls were hosted in a woman’s house. For two days they seemed to have forgotten about us. Strange men visited us now and then, pointing at us and saying something. Later we found out that they were negotiating the price. We were separated from each other. Now I cannot describe the feeling that I had when I was taken to the first client. He became very angry when I started shouting, he hit my face several times, and then started consoling me. I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. Somehow he explained to me that in case I obeyed him, he would help me return home. When it was over, I started to think that he wouldn’t need me any more, and that they would leave me alone. How could I know that everything was just beginning? I turned into a robot, silently implementing all the wishes of clients. After suffering for seven months one day I was suddenly called to the hostess; they gave me clothes, 200 dollars, my passport and showed me off to Armenia. Then I found out that my uncle’s wife told her neighbor that she would call the police unless she revealed where I was. After I was back I realized how much I had changed – my attitude and even my character. Fortunately in Goris nobody knew about my travels. Only my closest kin knew what had happened to me. Later my uncle’s wife’s helped me to meet someone and I got married. It’s been a year already that I go to bed with the fear that my husband or his relatives will find something out. I tried to talk to my husband several times but I am sure that he wouldn’t understand. I also avoid visiting my hometown. How long shall I have to live with this fear?”
These two stories are about victims of trafficking who managed to return home. How they managed to survive and how they are treated by their relatives and society is another issue. Shouldn’t the communities share the blame for what happened to these women? The victims of trafficking are most often not only those who seek physical pleasure but also people who have problems with self-esteem in the society.
As my interest in this topic grew I met the headmaster of the biggest boarding school in the region. More than 100 pupils graduate from that school each year, most of them orphans. When I asked whether the teachers at the school were aware of what awaits their graduates, Ms. Barseghyan replied that very often teachers care more about the kids than their parents or trustees do. She also regretted that the government does not have a program for helping orphans with education, employment and lodging.

The fact is that the government needs to initiate concrete steps towards minimizing the number of victims of trafficking through improving social conditions, there is no doubt that at the same time the society itself should be ready to accept the “return of victims”: its refusal can only be to the benefit of criminal groups who trade in human beings .