В тесных объятиях традиции. Патриархат и война

The next part in Chapter Three focuses on the post-war migrations and the feminization of poverty. In this part of Chapter Three the author shows the most typical life strategies of married women whose husbands work temporarily abroad. This exploration of survival strategies provides a better understanding of the transformation processes in the gender composition of society in crisis situations. Such labor migration is not a new phenomenon for people living in Nagorno Karabagh. This practice became part of Karabagh society during economic and political reforms in the 1860s that opened the region to capitalism. However the strongest motivations for migration are linked with post-perestroika changes in the USSR. The greatest migration flows began at the end of the 1980s as a result of the weakening of Moscow’s influence over the region. Poverty, fears of war and an unwillingness to serve in the army (for men) stimulated these migration processes.

Noteworthy here is that subjective experiences of deprivation, poverty and social exclusion differ depending on, for example, culture, class and gender. Indeed, the feminisation of poverty is directly linked to the fact that policies concerning allocation of work in part reflect traditional stereotypes, including those according to which the main breadwinner in the family is the man. Moreover, with the end of the old Soviet economic and political mechanisms and the absence of alternative forms of governance, one can observe a resurgence of the clan as a means of distribution of political and economic leverages. Many families are dependent on the assistance of relatives living outside the regional boundaries (Grannovetter's the strength of weak ties’). Those who have no such links are forced to emigrate themselves. For many years men are tied to places where they have migrated to and cannot obtain the resources to finance the migration of their families.

The market economy has also affected the system of traditional relationships, including in the sphere of traditional exchanges and family relations. As such, women’s economic strategies take on trajectories that are atypical of pre-war Karabagh — and women constitute a ‘female’ economy. While striving to become independent subjects of economic activities, women nevertheless have to pay lip service to the ’discourse of the victimized’ in order to show their reluctance to take on roles incompatible with traditionally prescribed behaviour. Although the separation of families undoubtedly has a destructive effect on family relations; it also is positive in the sense that women have developed greater confidence because they have learnt to deal with problems on their own. This process is also linked to the symbolic losses in the family: the psychological discomfort of the woman and her children. At the same time, it has advantages for a woman living in a patriarchal society in the sense that all her needs are provided for in exchange for a passive, subordinate role. Such a situation underlines the contrdictions in the traditional patriarchal system.

The consequences of these social processes for the transformation of the gender order in post-Soviet societies are ambivalent. The post-war de-modernisation of daily life aggravates women’s situation, complicating their social responsibilities. At the same time, the absence of men permits women to carry out their own economic plans. Women emerge as economically active and socially independent subjects.

The final chapter in this book deals with young veterans of the Karabakh War (1991–1994) and how patriarchy constructs the image of hegemonic masculinity. This chapter focuses on the experiences of ordinary teenagers whose lives became part of warfare. The harsh, shocking hardships they experienced during the war are far from being named «youth culture of leisure» (that is to say youth sub/contra culture as a social phenomenon, rather than biological age scale). It seems that those adolescents have skipped a stage of their lives. The article touches upon the young veterans’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) syndrome and how they try to overcome it. Some of them are still traumatized by the consequences of war after more than a decade. Some have undergone identity-transformations that affect their present life trajectories.

In conclusion, the author discusses the very Karabakh women’s views and the evaluation of their own situation, speaking about the perspectives of the gender order transformations in the region.

Приложение 1 Рассказы участников исследования (информантов)

Гаспарян Элина,

1970 г. р., г. Баку

Побег

1992 г. май месяц, село Спитакашен.