Azeri women act as a bridge East and West
The veil is long gone, but some social traditions remain

Azerbaijanis like to think of themselves and their country as a bridge between East and West. This ancient country is truly an eclectic mixture of peoples, religions, and cultures. And so it is with the women of Azerbaijan.

There appears to be little difference in the appearance of women in Baku from the way they appear in any European capitals.

There are several statues of Azerbaijan’s revered women poets in Baku’s parks. Women vote, drive, have careers, and own property.
But in the Azerbaijan parliament one will find only 13 female members out of 145. There is no woman minister in the government, much less one among the five deputy prime ministers. Women work in business, but are seldom found above the department head level.

Outside of Baku, things are a little more traditional. There, a visitor is still unlikely to see a woman wearing a chador, but head coverings are more frequent.

So Azerbaijan is not Afghanistan or Iran, and it will never be. From about the time of the first oil boom, when Azerbaijanis of both sexes were tiring of the overbearing authority of mullahs, the influence of religion has declined. While there are a couple of remote areas where a more conservative brand of Islam has its appeal, in modern times, Azerbaijanis have firmly repulsed any attempt to install a fundamentalist version of Islam of the type favored in Iran or Afghanistan.

The decline in religion, of course, received a big boost when the Soviets took over. The Soviets banned the chador in the early 1920s, an act largely welcomed by Azeri women in general. The Soviets even erected a towering statue of the "Liberated Woman" throwing away her veil. In a delicious irony, the statue now stands in front of the Baku branch of the National Bank of Iran.

About 94 percent of Azerbaijanis identify themselves as Muslim. But Azerbaijanis are quick to point out that their nation is strictly secular above all. Western scholars who specialize in this region say that it is important for Americans to understand that in Azerbaijan, the identification of oneself as a Muslim may be more of a statement of nationality than a religious identifier.

But Azerbaijan is not New York or Washington, either. Women, as noted, are not often found in the real decision-making positions. Stemming more from Azerbaijan’s strong family traditions than from religious practices, Azeri women find themselves under tight societal restrictions regarding dating, marriage, and divorce. Young people, and especially young women, are expected to live at home with their parents until they marry. The restrictions on young women are strongly reinforced by the social fear of what older men and women will think or say about them.

Males are still very much the head of the family here, and they set the rules. When a man dies, his authority passes not to his widow, but to the eldest son. And then it is the son who sets the rules for his sisters.

While traditions may be more restrictive than in Europe or America, women in Azerbaijan have always had an honored place in society. Mamanat Omarova, head of the State Committee on Women’s Issues, and a lifelong activist, says that women still draw on tradition in Azerbaijan. The word of a mother is sacred in the family, for she is the guardian of tradition. An educated woman is still the teacher of children.

Education for women has been important in Azerbaijan since the time of the first oil boom in the early 1900s. One of the early oil barons recognized the importance of mothers educating their children. Over the strong objections of the mullahs, he built the first school for Muslim women in Azerbaijan after the turn of the last century, which lasted until the Soviet takeover.

In the Soviet times, education was also key for women. Omarova says, "Education was the most important thing – with education you could achieve rank in society.

"The Soviet illusion helped some people," she says. "But now we have a market economy, society is changing its values, and women are afraid of losing their place (in society)." The government has taken some steps to reassure women, but progress is clearly not coming fast enough for Omarova or for many young Azerbaijani women.

When Azerbaijan became independent in 1991, Omarova says, women were involved in the national freedom movement, "but the decision making was done by men."

After 1995, when Azerbaijan women attended the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, and signed the UN covenant on women’s right, Omarova had an instrument with which to push for movement. "What democracy means to me," she says, "is that certain international laws and requirements are incorporated into this country’s legislation, so that Azerbaijan’s laws are conforming to global trends."

In 1999, President Aliyev directed the State Committee for Women’s Issues to draw up a national action plan. This plan, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers, requires each minister to report annually on the progress made on women’s issues. The President has also issued two decrees affecting women, one on empowerment and another on participation in policymaking and public life.
Moreover, there are now some 44 non-governmental organizations concerned with women’s issues in Azerbaijan. The World Bank’s $100 million dollar Poverty Reduction Program has 15 working groups specifically devoted to women and gender issues.

As a result, Omarova says, "Women are once again beginning to believe in themselves." Now Omarova has turned her considerable political clout to advancing the cause of the women among Azerbaijan’s hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons.

In the Council of Europe Committee on Equality, Omarova represents Azerbaijan, and by sheer force of will she has managed to move the Committee to focus on why refugee women should be considered when discussing the issues of protection of women against violence.

Women’s issues are a growing concern for younger Azeri women as well. One young woman, discussing the difference in divorce rates in America and Azerbaijan, says divorce is legal in Azerbaijan, "But here, being so close, society doesn’t let people divorce, so they keep living together even if the marriage is pretty much finished."

While not scientific, young Baku-ites estimated that about 60 percent of young people marry for love, but about 40 percent find themselves in family arranged marriages. The percentage of arranged marriages, they say, is higher in the outlying areas of the country.