Celebrated Women's Health Book, 'Our Bodies, Ourselves,' Translated into Armenian

By Sossi Essajanian

BOSTON, MA—The health and well being of a nation’s people shape its future. Physically and mentally healthy individuals build nations that are productive culturally, politically, and economically. But establishing and maintaining a thorough system is a challenge all nations face today.

Since the 1970s, women’s health issues have been brought to the forefront of the healthcare stage in the US. Today, this movement has far reaching effects, impacting women all over the world.

Women’s health activist Judy Norsigian is one of those trying to transfer this knowledge through different forms of media.

Norsigian is co-founder and program director of Our Bodies, Ourselves, also known as Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (BWHBC), a non-profit organization founded by 12 women in Watertown. Their goal was to provide education about women’s rights and their health. The BWHBC is a leader in the national and international women’s health awareness initiatives and provides a reliable source of information on the Internet.

Norsigian, who was raised in Watertown, MA, attended Radcliffe College. Later, she worked with teenagers and lived communally on a farm in upstate New York.

Astonished by the lack of clear, specific information available to women about their own bodies, the group set out to collect medical facts, expert opinions, and personal perspectives and share them with other women through workshops by distributing pamphlets. Responding to a growing demand of knowledge and discussion in the women’s health field, the group published the first edition of the book Our Bodies, Ourselves in 1970.

Since its original publication, Our Bodies, Ourselves has sold more than 4 million copies and has subsequently been translated into 19 languages, adapted to meet the cultural needs of each country.

The authors were approached by Armenian women to publish the book in Armenian. Similar to other groups seeking a translation of the book, Norsigian said that the women were looking for more accurate and thorough information about women’s health.

The Armenian translation project began was spurred by a visit to Boston by Dr. Mary Khachikian from Yerevan while she was attending the Armenian World Medical Congress in 1996. At that time, she had the opportunity to meet with Norsigian, leading to the translated publication of Our Bodies, Ourselves in 2001, with the support of Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA).

During the translation process, Norsigian traveled to Armenia in 2000 for an AIWA meeting, where she again connected with Khachikian. There she learned first hand about the lives of Armenia’s female population.

Norsigian believes that because women have to interact with the healthcare system more frequently—accompanying sick children and relatives for medical attention—the faults of the system are magnified for them.

She says that the quality of care and better reproductive health services are needed in order to improve the overall health of women in Armenia. Norsigian says that in Armenia there are limited resources for information. Through this book, she sees a widening knowledge base as well as improvements in the quality of information that can be distributed to students in school health classes.

Despite demand for the book, its distribution in Armenia has been controversial because of its advocacy of women’s voices in shaping the public policies that affect their health, and because of its frank and open discussions of controversial topics in human sexuality.

With another, expanded English edition of the book coming out next year, Norsigian and her colleagues have their hands full.

Norsigian is helping to obtain funding for publishing a second edition of the book in Armenia.

For more information or to read excerpts of the book, visit the BWHBC Web site at www.ourbodiesourselves.org.