Azerbaijani feminists blame authorities for death of domestic violence victim

A group of feminists has held a rally in front of a police building in Baku aiming to draw attention to the death of Sevindj Magerramova, a resident of the settlement of Zira, who had complained of beating by her husband. The protesters poured paint on the building and were detained for half an hour.

The activists who came to the police building had a poster "The state is the killer of Sevindj!" They poured red paint on the doors of the police building.

"We came here every day with a complaint about the Sevindj's case; she was severely beaten by her husband in March. But the police, instead of arresting the rapist, tried to persuade her to make peace. For two months, no measures were taken to detain her husband," said Narmin Shakhmarzade, one of the participants of the action.

According to Gyulnara Mekhtieva, another feminist, in March, Magerramova's husband beat her up.

"In all ways, the police tried to hush up this case. Everyone tried to persuade the woman to make peace with her husband. In May, she had to do this in order to see her children whom her husband had sent to his relatives. This police department is involved in Sevindj's blood. And we wanted to symbolize this," Ms Mekhtieva has stated.

Policemen took the posters away from the feminists and detained several of them. After half an hour, all the detainees were back at large.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 4, 2021 at 08:59 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.