“My pen is my freedom; through it, I can explore and illuminate the darkest corners of my mind and my society.”
-Zabel Yesayan
Her Pen, Her Weapon - The Enduring Voice of Armenian Women
On the night of April 24, 1915, Armenian intellectuals—including women writers—were marked for silence. But exile could not erase their words. These women, once targeted for their ideas, transformed suffering into literature and memory into resistance. In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, and across generations that followed, Armenian women continued to wield the written word as both witness and weapon—defying erasure through poetry, scholarship, journalism, and testimony.
The First to Suffer, The Last to Be Remembered
During the Armenian Genocide, women bore the greatest weight of horror. They were ripped from their homes, separated from their families, stripped of their dignity, and then their lives. They were forced into death marches, sold into slavery, subjected to unspeakable violence, and left to die nameless in the desert. Yet even in the face of unimaginable cruelty, they showed resilience that defied the logic of hatred. This section bears witness to those women—mothers, daughters, sisters—who suffered not only physically, but in the erasure of identity, language, and place. Their stories are not just tragedy. They are echoes that demand to be heard.
Canadian Women Who Took a Stand
Canadian women played a critical yet often overlooked role in responding to the Armenian Genocide. Humanitarian nurse Sara Corning, born in Nova Scotia, travelled to the Ottoman Empire where she rescued and cared for thousands of Armenian orphans, later establishing orphanages in Greece. Women’s church groups, especially from Presbyterian and Methodist congregations, mobilized donations and supplies through the Canadian Red Cross and missionary networks. Figures such as Isabel Trask and other Canadian missionaries bore witness to the Genocide and wrote letters and reports that reached Parliament and international audiences. Through activism, advocacy, and direct relief work, Canadian women helped shape a legacy of moral leadership and compassion that continues to inspire humanitarian responses today.
Guardians of Humanity: Women Nurses and Doctors During and After the Genocide
In the shadow of atrocity, it was often women—missionaries, nurses, doctors, and volunteers—who answered the call. From the tireless fieldwork of Near East Relief members to the quiet heroism of nurses like American Emma Cushman and Swiss humanitarian Elisabeth Künzler, women risked their lives to shelter, heal, and defend Armenian survivors. They created orphanages, smuggled out children, documented horrors, and offered a lifeline when the world looked away. Their compassion, courage, and global solidarity helped preserve a future for a people marked for destruction.