Three female activists detained after picket in defence of Azerbaijani students

Gyulnara Mekhtieva, the coordinator of the Azerbaijani feminist movement, has held a solo picket in support of the students, who had been sanctioned the day before after their action at the building of the Ministry of Education in Baku. She and two other female activists were detained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 1, six students demanded that to cancel summer exams and exempt students from paying for the semester due to the coronavirus epidemic. They were fined for violating the quarantine regime; one of them was arrested for 15 days for disobeying the police.

"On June 1, students came here and said they didn't want to pay for the non-attended classes. After all, since early March, there were no classes at universities ... But the Ministry of Education wouldn't support the students," Ms Mekhtieva has stated.

Law enforcers demanded from her to stop the picket under the pretext that during the quarantine it is forbidden to gather. In response, the activist said that she came alone; and this can not be considered a gathering. After that, a law enforcer took away her poster.

Then, Mekhtieva, as well as Rabiya Mamedova, an activist of the "Nida" movement, and Nargiz Absalamova, a journalist of the "Microscope Media", who came to help her, were detained.

All the three women were taken to the police station in Baku, and after an hour they were released, Mekhtieva has reported. According to her story, they had the so-called "prophylactic conversation" about the "need to support the course of the country's leadership."