Attitude towards girl children in Azerbaijan has always been a hot topic for discussion. Old-fashioned sickening stereotypes have always caused the society to split and led to controversial approaches, thus obscuring our integration to the civilized world. The process of acquiring equal rights with men, getting an education and integrate into the society has never been easy for an Azerbaijani woman.

Attitude and behavior towards women in the history Azerbaijan

If it wasn’t for the opening of the first Girls’ Seminary in Baku at the end of the 19^th century, Azerbaijan would have become one of the most despotic countries in the world, where women’s rights are violated grossly.

In fact, in his struggle for opening a girls’ school, Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev had to engage in the battle of opinions with madcap chieftains and religious zealots.

To begin with, Taghiyev has asked the Emperor Alexander the 3^rd for a permission to open a Muslim girls’ school in Baku, but his offer was rejected. However, Taghiyev had a dream to educate Azerbaijani girls, and thus, he made another attempt after the crowning of Nikolas the 2^nd.

In the year 1895, Taghiyev sends a very expensive gift to the newly crowned Emperor Nicholas II’s wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, on the occasion of the emperor’s crowning and asks for permission to open a school for girls and name it after her. Thus, he has received a verbal permission in 1896, followed by the official permission two years later. This initiative was received fiercely in Baku. The chieftains and old-fashioned conservative religious zealots were furious, expressing thoughts like “girls were not meant for education” and “a woman’s place is at her husband’s heel”. Taghiyev’s response was very polite and delivered in a form that these people would easily understand. In his speech before the public he said: “My fellow citizens, it is very important to make sure our girls get an education, because it will help them open their eyes, have better manners. Don’t you see that our young men, who study in England, Germany or France, are coming back with foreign fiancées, because they are too much bored with our girls? Children born from foreign wives have other values and they will inherit all our riches. If this tendency continues, our homes will be left without Quran, without Namaz and without any sharia values”.

After that, Taghiyev asks the ghazi of Baku governorate Mir-Mahammad Karim and famous cleric Mirza Abuturab to read verses from Quran about the importance of education for women. However, that doesn’t stop the angry crowd. Then, Haji Zeynalabdin continued: “In the new school, girls will be able to learn the sharia doctrines, as well as learn such things as sewing and stitching, weaving, kitchen works, reading and speaking the Muslim (local) and Russian languages, and even learn some math and how to raise children. What can be wrong with learning these things?! I’m talking to you Molla Ali Haji Khalil oglu, listen to me! I don’t want our girls to become dishonest or become exposed to foreigners. Remember a couple of days ago your middle daughter had suffered from colic and almost died? You’ve called that long-mustached Ambarsum, who made medicine and rescued her from dying. Now tell me, what if we had our own lady doctor instead of that long-mustached doctor Ambarsum, wouldn’t that be better in terms of sharia?  We have a great demand for female doctors and teachers!”

This speech by Taghiyev was well-received by the listeners and despite all the pressure and obstacles, some well-known religious persons let their daughters to enroll to the school. Thus, the biggest women-related stereotype of that period has been defeated. The Girls Seminary became a “green light” for all of our women. In the year 1908 Hanifa Melikova, the wife of Hasan bey Zardabi has initiated the establishment of first charity organization for women in Azerbaijan. In the year 1918 during the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, women and men were granted equal rights, while women didn’t have such rights even in the world’s leading countries. During the Soviet period women have also had broad rights in Azerbaijan, and significant attention was paid to their education. The number of women in government institutions, cultural and social sectors, the sports sphere and etc. has increased. Women were along with men fighting on the forefront of Azerbaijan’s national struggle for sovereignty at the period of our second independence. Today, we have many women engaged and holding important positions in state management, public sector, and other areas.

However, all of the above mentioned was not enough to completely eliminate the stereotype against women in our society. As a clear example of this fact we can mention some of the names, given to girls in our country, such as Kifayet, Yeter, Qizbes, Tamam (all of these names can be translated as “Enough”).

According to According to research conducted by the UN Population Fund office in Azerbaijan together with the State Committee on Family, Women and Children related Problems, Azerbaijan is currently facing the same lack of women problem that used to exist at the countries of Southern-Eastern Asia. Currently, there are 116 boys born in Azerbaijan for every 100 girls.

Girls who make their families proud

Nevertheless, there are many families in Azerbaijan where girl children have successful careers and make their families proud. We would like to introduce you to one of such families. This family should become an example for the whole Azerbaijani society. We are talking about the family of Elshad Musayev, chairman of the Great Azerbaijan Party. He has two daughters and a son. His daughters Gunel and Xeyransa Musayeva have gained a historical achievement in Turkey. Thus, by graduating from the Bahcesehir University, which provides education in English and has the most number of foreign students, Gunel Musayeva has demonstrated the best results, while her sister Xeyransa has finished her education by demonstrating the third result.

Moreover, Gunel Musayeva was decorated with Bahcishehir University’s 2017, “Altin Beyin” (Golden Brain) honorary title and award, being one of the most prestigious success symbols. Speaking before the students, Ms. Gunel has dedicated this victory to her family and brotherhood between Azerbaijan and Turkey. She has finished her speech by remembering the founder of Azerbaijan Democratic state Mahammad Emin Rasulzade and Ataturk.

According to Elshad Musayev, the success of his daughters is not a coincidence: “As a father I’m very proud of my girls. As opposed to other Eastern countries, the education of girls gets a significant importance in Azerbaijan. Of course, in some of our regions people don’t want to have girls in their families, but there are absolutely no reasons for such an attitude. A child is a gift of God, and parents should not complain or worry about gender of their kids”.

Elshad Musayev says he paid a lot of attention to his daughters’ education from their early age: “It bothers me a lot when I see unpleasant attitude towards girls in our society. Only irresponsible parents can differentiate discriminate their children based on gender. Quite the opposite, parents who are educated, wise, have a sense of ethics, nationhood and pride for own nation should value all their children. And if you raise your children without education, proper manners and without sense of patriotism, any child, regardless of whether it is a boy or a girl will become a problem and burden for any family. On the other hand, if a child is educated and properly brought up, he/she will support the family and make the parents happy”.

The women and Islam

As we have already mentioned in the beginning of this article, becoming educated and active in the public life was not so easy for Azerbaijani women. The ideas of wise persons like Zeynalabdin Tagiyev on educating the girls were received with criticism by chieftains and old-fashioned conservative religious zealots. Therefore, the question is: how does Islam receive and evaluate the education of women and their role in the society?

We have addressed this question to theologian Elshad Miri, who indicates that Allah (the God) did not create men or women to be more superior or privileged over each other: “It is said in the Holy Koran that Allah evaluates and differentiates human beings by their deeds and not by their gender. Prophet Mohammed, who was a father of four daughters, has managed to eliminate the gender inequality, which has dominated the society before the Islam. His family name has continued with his daughter Fatima xanim. The prophet also said: “Beware of the wrath of God and treat all your children fairly”. Therefore the attitude towards girls in some of our families is not inspired by the Islam religion. Quite the opposite, there are many religious families who attach a special value to educating their girl children. After the appearance of Islam the attitude towards girls in the East has changed, and girl children were not buried alive anymore. Being a father of girls myself, I take the education and health of my children very responsibly. My daughter attends swimming classes. And considering that I have solid knowledge in Islam, you can clearly see that our religion does not differentiate or discriminate the girls in any way”.

Ruslan Khalil