11:08, 9 March 2020

Baku: female activists demand to stop discriminating women (+video)

Feminists' march in Baku. March 8, 2020. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

Participants of a feminists' march held in Baku pointed out to the authorities the problem of domestic violence. Policemen detained several of them.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that a year ago, in Baku, a group of feminists held a march aiming to draw attention to the problem of domestic violence against women. Law enforcers then squeezed the women off the square.

“We took to the streets today to protest against killings of women, selective abortions, gender discrimination and violence, early marriages, and girls' forced marriages ... In our country dominated by patriarchal values, no woman can be free," Aigyul Djafarova, one of the initiators of the march and an activist of the Feminist Movement of Azerbaijan (FMA), has stated.

She has added that the protesters also demanded from Azerbaijani authorities to join the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention).

Some of the men who joined the march were detained.

In November 2019, Azerbaijani activists noted that after actions in defence of women in Baku, the police began reacting more actively to cases of domestic violence.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 8, 2020 at 02:57 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent