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Forced to Fly: Tragedy launched civic leadership career of Bakshyan
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
For Anahit Bakhshyan, principal of Yerevan school No. 27, life is divided into two periods: Before October 27th 1999, and After October 27, 1999.
“I understood I could play a more important role in the formation of civil society.” |
On that definitive day, her husband Yuri, vice-speaker of the Assembly, was among eight victims gunned down by terrorists during a meeting of the Armenian National Assembly.
“Before the tragedy of October 27th I felt my being a woman in the largest sense of the word; besides cooking, I also used to sew clothes for the five members of my family and it was a pleasure to feel a bit weak and feel the support of a man,” says Bakhshyan.
“After the 27th I ceased being a woman. When my husband was killed at the National Assembly, I realized I should struggle alone throughout my life and should find the answers to questions alone.”
And the questions were numerous.
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“My attitude towards society and state changed fully and I understood I could play a more important role in the formation of civil society,” she says.
Education, specifically School No. 27, became her field of battle. On her initiative, No. 27 became the first school in Armenia to establish a Student Government, and the first to set up student-principal forums.
“I endorse freedom a lot. Children should be taught to protect their rights, to be vigilant, and to have their opinion from childhood,” says Bakhshyan.
As she has emerged from “help mate” to leader, she has found that Armenian women are emancipated, but only so far as men will allow them.
“If women were to make up 50 percent of politics, our country would drastically change. But men know women will not enter into their dirty games, women are more honest and more responsible. Women want safety for their children instinctively and will provide it also in the country, not only at home,” she says.
Bakhshyan recalls her first appearance before a class at age 24 as a teacher of physics; she lacked confidence and could only cry instead of carry on. Eight years ago, at age 52, she took over leadership of a school that has become a model for civic education.
“I gradually learned to fly alone. Richard Bach’s ‘Seagull’ is a guide for me; the seagull left its flock and learned to fly and advised its friends to do the same thing. I do it in my school.”
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