Armenian Genocide and women’s double pain – Kurdish journalist’s review
Mujgan Halis, an ethnic Kurdish journalist from Turkey, has devoted an article to women survivors of Armenian Genocide, their bitter experiences caused by rapes, violent conversion to Islam and enslaving.
The article, published in Demokrat Haber, is presented below.
The sexual aspect of the Armenian Genocide, reflected through the female being’s image, remains to date an ignored memory. Yes, Genocide was a double pain for Armenian women, who simultaneously experienced rapes, forced marriages and enslaving.
Rapes
In 1915, the Armenian women expelled from their country also lost husbands, brothers and kids, becoming victims of repeated rapes …
Very few studies have been conducted into the matter so far. In their verbal stories, those who are still alive mitigate or circumvent the rapes. Women do not want to speak about that violence. The same sources say that men too, are reluctant to address the topic; they often say it is very difficult to recount [the bitter experience].
Kidnapped, Islamized women
Genocide caused Armenian women to also experience forced Islamization. Some 200,000 women are believed to have been converted to Islam, assimilated and acquired a Kurdish, Turkish or Arab “descent”…
The rapes committed against Armenian women were followed by forced marriages.
Islamized women forgot their identity and native tongue in the course of time. Many of them saw conversion to Islam as the only choice to save their loved ones.
Grandma’s Tattoos
The Islamized women who later married Muslim men would use henna, as was the tradition. But the henna or tattoos had a different significance [for them]. “Grandma’s Tattoo’s”, a movie by Syuzanne Khardalian, is devoted to that. It is about the thousands of forgotten women who survived the Armenian Genocide, those who “had to sell their bodies”. Their bodies bore tattoos to distinguish them from others.
Khardalian describes the movie as a journey into one family’s secret.
“Khanum nene (grandmother) was not like everybody. I remember her as a woman who had an evil heart. She hated physical contact. She never hugged or kissed anyone and always hid the tattoos on her hands. Now I know why my grandmother speaks Kusrdish so well. She was subjected to rape on the bank of Euphrates when she was 12. The Kurd who responded to her calls for help kidnapped her. She had to live with the man for seven years. Later, she managed to escape thanks to an English missionary. My grandma lived like a captive for years. She had not only her hands but also her fortune stamped; her memory bore the imprints of shame and fear,” says the director.
After World War I, Armenian unions and missionary organizations attempted to free kidnapped women.
Markets for captives
The markets for captives were another brutality Armenian women survived. One can read about this in Yves Ternon’s book about the Mardin Genocide.
The author says Armenian women were forced to work as sex-slaves.
Ternon was convinced that despite the 1909 official ban on slavery in the Ottoman Empire, those markets would open for Armenian women and children throughout the war.
The vendors wished to very quickly get rid of their “goods”; hence the price for the Armenians was very low. Children aged five to seven would sell for 5-20 Kurushes, the price of a lambkin. A young lady or a fellow aged 14-15 would find a buyer for two or three Mejdiyes (silver coin). The prices would change depending on the Armenian family’s position. Those who purchased those women or girls could later become the legal owners of their property.
Videos
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Armenians Commemorating 106th Anniversary of Genocide
Biden Under Pressure to Recognize Armenian Genocide - KTLA 5 News
Governance and Oversight Capacities Account for Our Bank's Robust Management System - Philip Lynch, Independent Board Member at Ameriabank
'Mr. President, It Is Now in Your Power to Right Decades of Denial' - US Congressman Adam Schiff Urges Joe Biden to Recognize Armenian Genocide
Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in Despair After Trauma of Military Defeat - France 24
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- 09:40 • 23.04.21 Biden Under Pressure to Recognize Armenian Genocide - KTLA 5 News
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- 10:39 • 24.10.20 Gas Pipeline Damaged in Azerbaijani Fire Targeting Nagorno-Karabakh's Capital
- 12:41 • 23.10.20 President Armen Sarkissian Meets Emmanuel Macron at Élysée Palace
- 12:16 • 23.10.20 Artsakh Defense Army Neutralizes Azerbaijani Military Hardware
- 12:02 • 22.10.20 Artsakh Defense Army Units Neutralizing Azerbaijani Military Infrastructures
- 10:35 • 22.10.20 President Armen Sarkissian Meets with NATO Secretary-General in Brussels
- 10:51 • 17.10.20 Buildings and Homes Lying in Ruins in Nagorno-Karabakh's Capital After Azerbaijani Shelling
- 15:09 • 15.10.20 Artsakh Defense Army's Precision Fire Gives Deadly Blow to Enemy
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- 12:23 • 12.10.20 Armenians Protest Outside Turkrish Embassy in Los Angeles
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- 14:11 • 09.10.20 Turkey openly backs Azerbaijan 'far more aggressively than in the past' - ABC News on Syrian mercenaries fighting in Karabakh
- 15:52 • 08.10.20 Iconic Armenian Church Hit in Azerbaijani Attacks in Nagorno-Karabakh City (photos)
- 10:57 • 08.10.20 Artsakh Defense Army Continues High-Precision Strikes
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- 12:39 • 04.10.20 Nagorno-Karabakh's Capital Under Azerbaijani Strikes
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- 10:12 • 29.09.20 ArmenianTroops Destroy Azerbaijani Armored Fighting Vehicle on Frontline
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- 18:45 • 28.09.20 EU calls for Immediate End to Hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh
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