OSCE Office in Yerevan co-organizes award ceremony to announce winners of essay contest

YEREVAN, 14 April 2006 - High School students who wrote essays on the problems women face in the Armenian society and women's roles in society and the family were in the limelight as the winners of the OSCE-supported Third Republican Student Essay Competition were announced.

The three national and 18 regional winners, selected among 151 participants from Armenia's five regions, were honoured at an award ceremony yesterday attended by representatives from NGOs, the Armenian government and the international community. The essay competition, held for the third consecutive year, was organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan jointly with the Center for Development of Civil Society and the U.S. Peace Corps.

The winning essays illustrated Armenian students' awareness of gender issues.

"The stereotype that the man should work, while the woman should be a housewife is absolutely absurd," one of the national prize winners wrote in her essay.

"The essay competition inspires and challenges hundreds of students to think about gender issues in Armenia," Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of the OSCE Office said at the award ceremony. "It reaches teenagers at a time when they are forming their views about the society and trying to find their place in the big world."