YEREVAN. – The bill on equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women was misinterpreted in the society and ‘gender’ term led to misunderstanding, head of Orinats Yerkis parliamentary faction said.

“We offered to eliminate the term ‘gender’ from the bill and replace it by the word ‘sex’ or other term normally perceived by the Armenian society,” Heghine Bisharyan said during the Monday hearings.

Secretary of Prosperous Armenia faction Naira Zohrabyan noted that she and her colleague Elinar Vardanyan also spoke for replacing ‘gender’ by ‘equality between men and women’.

“The government naturally did not support our offer, and Prosperous Armenia will vote against including the bill into the agenda,” she added.

Opposition MP Alexander Arzumanyan recalled that the issue had been discussed by the Committee on human rights for 3-4 hours. ARF representative Armen Rustamyan spoke for replacing term ‘gender’, while Heritage party MP Ruben Hakobyan opposed inclusion of the bill.

Finally, the parliament voted against including the bill into the agenda.