Eva Gharibyan - Եվա Ղարիբյան

I am Yeva, 20 years old.

I study at Yerevan State University,

in the faculty of English language
and literature.

Education has always been important to me.

During my school years I enjoyed
not only the classes,

but also the extracurricular activities.

I liked all the subjects,
except for Math.

There were subjects I didn’t give
much importance to,

because the classes were really dull.

One of them was Social Science.

Both the book and the class were so boring

and we never cared about the importance
of knowing

one’s rights and responsibilities
as a pupil and as a citizen.

This is what happened during
biology classes, too.

Biology was interesting in general,

but there was a session during the course
that was the most awkward one

I had to attend during my school life:
the class of reproductive health.

We were at 9th grade,

when we had our first lesson of
the reproductive health session.

The atmosphere was very tense.

We spoke a bit about our physiology

and quickly moved to menstruation
and nocturnal emission,

though we didn’t talk much
about the latter.

The teacher mentioned that menstruation
first occurs with the girls

who have a bit bigger bodies.

On that day I was sitting at the last desk

and I promise I will never forget
the looks I got from my classmates

as if I was the only girl in the world
to experience menstruation cycle ever.

A few days later, when we hardly
recovered from the shock,

the boys and girls in our class
were organized into separate groups:

boys were taken to
the physical education teacher,

while girls were sent to the nurse room.

And she immediately started telling
about child delivery.

I still remember the fear we all had
because she was talking about the process

as if it is a scene from a horror movie.

Up to this day I have a fear
of having a baby,

just because of the way she was telling us
about the delivery.

People may wonder why a young lady
like me would talk about this?

But I was the one, who was ashamed
and I was the one,

who taught not to be ashamed of this.

I was lucky to be in a project
called Y-Peer

organized by World Vision Armenia
and the United Nations in Armenia.

The project was about sexual
and reproductive health.

So, they trained us to be trainers
and taught us the whole course.

After a while, we started conducting
training sessions at schools

and teaching all we knew.

It took a week to see that
the project succeeded

and there were pupils, who weren't ashamed

to learn about their bodies
and talk about it.

There are a number of important facts
about this topic.

One of them is that in July 2008,

Healthy Lifestyle was added
to the subjects that are taught at school.

But the law said the school principal
was in charge of choosing

to teach the subject at school or not.

And in January 2011 the subject was
already a mandatory one for all schools,

there was a separate part of the course
called Sexual and Reproductive Health.

The important point is that
it was supposed to be taught

before the children hit the puberty,

but when it was not taught properly
Armenians could find the solution:

in girls’ cases it’s called

“She’ll get to know about it when
she gets married”,

while in boys’ cases it sounds like

“He is a boy, he knows everything
about it”.

In Armenia, it is always said that
the youth is our future.

But what if our future is not going
to be healthy

just because they are not aware
of their body?

That is why, these training courses are
very important

and they let you study your physiology
and know yourself thoroughly.

This is not only for future mothers,

this is for the physical and mental health
of every single one of us.

The stereotypes that sound like
“A princess does not use the toilet”

is quite the same when Armenian parents
think that their children

aren't interested and don't need to know
about sexual and reproductive health.

But obviously, both of the stereotypes
are wrong.

The fact is that the subject is still
not fully integrated

into our educational system.

The first factor is that even the teacher
is ashamed to talk about the subject

and so are the pupils.

Another factor affecting it is that

the physical education teacher
and the school nurse

are not much aware of the topic

and they share either their own experience
or something they’ve seen in the movies.

In fact, this is a huge issue
and it can’t be solved overnight,

so we need to start with ourselves.

As teenagers we need to feel free to talk
and to listen about this,

and the teachers and parents should feel
free to teach us sharing their experience.

Eventually, this will lead
to being educated,

and being educated is never a thing
to be ashamed of.

As an Armenian saying goes

“If it is natural then it is appropriate”.