Thousands urge to punish Azeri blogger for his call for violence against women

Tural Safarov, an Azerbaijani film director and blogger, has publicly apologized for his harsh remarks about openly dressed women. The apology does not exempt from criminal liability, the initiators of the campaign against Safarov assert. The collective complaint to law enforcement bodies was supported by 11,000 Instagram users.

In the opinion of the administrators of the Instagram page named "Femkulis", in his video, the blogger presents sexual violence as a norm.

"Some women allow themselves such clothes that one wants to hit them on the asses. And if she says something, you can answer: are you kidding me? She's put it on display ... Why should I suffer by suppress my passion?" the blogger asked.

The Azerbaijan Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has identified the author of the video, after which Tural Safarov stated that he had realized his mistake and asked to pardon him for his words, the "Haqqin.az" reports.

Shakhla Ismail, the head of the Society "Women for Rational Development", treats the apology insufficient. "He said that he has just misrepresented his thoughts. That is, internally he sticks to his viewpoints," she has concluded.

She has noted that although there are no organizations in Azerbaijan that openly call for violence against women or their discrimination, there are "carriers of such thinking", and in the country "the practice of domestic violence is still widespread."

According to her story, "some men are pathologically afraid of women's freedom and equality of rights." "It seems to them that if women are free, then men will lose some positions," Ms Ismail has explained.