Peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been monopolised by men for more than 30 years. And they’ve repeatedly failed. Now, with the longtime adversaries expected to sign a peace deal by the end of the year, some feminists in the South Caucasus are taking peacebuilding efforts into their own hands.
Feminist peace not only calls for the end of wars and violence, but for the abolition of patriarchy, militarisation, nationalism, imperialism,and male dominance. For some feminists, it’s also important to establish a horizontal approach to leadership instead of a top-down one, meaning hierarchies don’t exist and decision-making is shared.
This may sound like a distant dream, considering both Armenia and Azerbaijan have highly patriarchal societies, but “we’re not saying that it’s a utopia that we’ll [suddenly] achieve one day. It’s a process,” explained Sevinj Samadzade. “That’s one thing people should understand when we talk about peace in general.”
