Tiwsab, Srbuhi, 1840-1901

Srpouhi Dussap (Armenian: Սրբուհի Տիւսաբ; 1840–1901) was the first female Armenian novelist and an Armenian feminist writer. She used her works to advocate for women’s education, rights, and independence. Her life's work was influenced by her mother, who advocated for women's education in Constantinople, and her teacher, the Armenian poet Mkrtich Beshiktashlian. She started writing classical Armenian but later advocated for the use of the vernacular Armenian as the new literary language. Her earliest writings are series of essays on the status of women's education and employment. In 1883, she published the first novel by an Armenian woman, Mayda, which treated the theme of women's subordinate position in patriarchal society. Dussap's feminist ideas and her concerns connected to women's lack of independence are portrayed also in her later novels Siranush (1884) and Araksia, or The Governess (1887). Dussap is regarded today as one of the pioneers of Armenian feminism.