YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. The 2016 April clashes in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone motivated a number of young women and girls to challenge traditional gender roles and pick up arms, the article published in The Washington Post says, reports “Armenpress”.

The article entitled “These photos show the first female fighters in a decades-old conflict”, presents photos by Lena Mucha who visited Armenia’s military institutions, got acquainted with and took photos of Armenian women interested in military work.

“They are groundbreakers, facing resistance from many conservatives because they decided to go to a career where women are still not accepted”, Lena Mucha says. She states that in 2014 23 female recruits entered the military academy. Already a year later in Nagorno Karabakh, girls joined the military high school in Stepanakert for the first time.

Mucha also visited two institutions and says despite the fact that many had family members who served in the military, there was still much resistance to women joining. “Women should not be in the army, it’s not their place,” one of the physical instructors at the Yerevan Military Academy told Mucha. “They are just not like men.”

“When I photographed these girls, and spent time with them, I got to know them as quiet normal young women, with very similar kind of preoccupations, thoughts and dreams most of the young woman around the globe would have”, Mucha said, adding that their experience created a bond between them. “They are more than just fellow students but like a family”.