Mapping Women Stories

Mapping Women Stories

“I live without opinion, without decision, without desire. I do not exist.”

These are the words of a woman, a victim of domestic violence. Unfortunately, she is not the only one. There are many such stories MIHR theatre was able to reveal, which are presented in Mapping Women Stories brochure.

When starting this project, MIHR theatre wanted to understand the situation with domestic violence in different parts of Armenia. Usually it is a difficult issue, because women are afraid to share their stories. The family is considered a closed institution where issues are solved in a non-public way and even if something becomes open to public, in traditional communities it is not a question to be solved outside of family, so people become bystanders. It was not easy to show the life stories from the first attempt, but MIHR team was able to make it possible step by step. They also used art therapy to be able to help to the victims to face their past and present, reflect on their life and look into the future. MIHR theatre members were able to gather around 40 stories from women from all over Armenia. These stories became a brochure that was published in 2020.

In the project’s second stage the immersive art exhibition with theatrical performance was organized. During the period of around 20 days, the exhibition and performance had above 700 visitors. It was a great opportunity to speak about domestic violence through dance. The performers were able to show the psychologic stressful situation of those who were abused. The stories differ a lot, but speaking up is one of the attempts to show that it is not normal, that it should not exist. The performance and exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Yerevan aimed to show this situation and make people reflect on domestic violence and try to be vocal about it.

We believe that such projects can become small bits to help society to face the issue of domestic violence and try to overcome it.