Azerbaijan Gender Information Center
Yuliya Gureyeva
Report on Violence against Women in Azerbaijan for the UN Division for the Advancement of Women
One of the crucial points of the political discourse in post-Soviet Azerbaijan is the “neutral gender subject” equally referred to both sexes. This status is reinforced by the number of legal acts, including Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, creating generally good legal framework for equal rights. However, the whole political theories and practices in Azerbaijan are based on the strength and importance of the family and kinship ties. Within this patriarchal framework women are supposed to play a very important and respectful role as mothers and providers of the national values. But along with this favorable esteem, the societal discourse puts restrictions on the involvement of women in the public sphere, limits their roles to motherhood and house-holding and makes them vulnerable to the gender-based violence.
A recent USAID Gender Assessment for Azerbaijan (2004) found that the concept of domestic violence was not well understood or widely discussed, but commonly accepted as a traditional norm within the general population. The same assessment highlighted the prevalence of restrictions on movement and employment, early marriage, forced sexual intercourse, and an overall lack of basic understanding of human rights, as they pertain to women.
The scope of domestic violence has been difficult to gauge as few women report abuse. The statistical data provided through by the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan reported in the “Statistical Year Book, 2005” survey indicates 41 rape cases were registered in Azerbaijan in 2001, 39 cases in 2002, 49 in 2003 and 25 in 2004. No statistical data is provided with regard to other crimes of violence against women.
The most comprehensive research involving 7,668 women in Azerbaijan was conducted by the USAID in 2001. The report Reproductive Health Survey Azerbaijan was focused on the problem of reproductive health but tackled as well issue of domestic violence. According to the survey’s results 30% of currently/previously married women reported verbal abuse, 20% reported physical violence and 10% reported sexual violence perpetrated by their partner or ex-partner at some point during their life. At the same time, only 1% of women abused by their intimate partners reported the case to the police or talked to a health provider and less than 1% sought legal assistance.
The more recent report of the International Rescue Committee “Violence and Women in Azerbaijan” (2004) reported higher incidents of physical and sexual violence. The survey was completed by one hundred and thirty-four women aged 15 to 69, coming from IRC beneficiaries IDP’s and refugee communities. Of the 73 married women, 43 reported intimate partner violence in their current relationship, with 26% reporting psychological violence, 33% reporting physical violence, and 15 % reporting the occurrence of marital rape. 74% of women reporting violence in their current relationships report witnessing abuse as children between their parents.
According to the data provided by the Azerbaijan NGO Clean World, every year about 100 women in Azerbaijan die or become handicaps as a result of the domestic violence. This figure is higher than the number of women, who have became victims of the traffic accidents. 52% of husbands in Azerbaijan consider that, if “woman have been beaten, then she deserved that”. In the mean time 24 % of women share this opinion as well and 36% of battered wives find justification for their husband’s behavior.
Monitoring of the national press (34 periodicals published with a period of one year, March 2004 – March 2005) conducted by the “Clean World” exposed the serious facts of gender-based violence. In total newspapers reported about 520 cases of violence against women, with the mortality rate of 25% (129 cases). 85 cases of the violence happened within the families (63.5% of the cases were caused by jealousy and 36.5% by other household conflicts). The more repetitive cases have been identified as attempts of the brothers to kill their sisters as punishment for misconduct and bringing shame to family’s’ honor. Women have been killed in 60% of these cases.
There are no government sponsored crisis centers for women, who are victims of domestic violence, although the Institute for Peace and Democracy opened such a center in Baku in November, 2001. The first and only in Azerbaijan Women’s Crisis Center is greatly dependent from the financial support from international donors, who more willingly support not Center’s operation, but its projects, what provides not stable salaries and working hours for its employers.
4.806 women visited the Women’s Crisis Center (WCC) since November 2001 till August 1st, 2005, 5.778 women used hotline of the Center. Currently three specialists of the Center provide their assistance to women: a jurist, gynecologist and psychologist. Center also attracts volunteers, mostly women, who help with administrative duties.
According to the director of the Center Matanat Azizova, within the four years of operations the Center has evolved significantly and mainly switched the focus of its educational activities. At the beginning WCC staff and external local and international trainers were traveling through Azerbaijan and delivering trainings in different regions on different topics related to violence against women issues. However, this practice has not been very successful as involved only small groups of individuals (20-30 participants for each region).
Since 2003 WCC decided to change their educational methods and started active cooperation with Azeri national Mass Media. In January - March 2003 WCC in cooperation with Internews prepared the series of TV programs “Bir Bol Iki”, broadcasted weekly on the Azerbaijan national channel ANS TV. Programs were dedicated to the different aspects of women’s rights and were done in the form of framed-up trails and video plots followed up by the experts opinion and suggestions to women, who faced or might be facing this kind of situations in their own life.
In November 2003-August 2004 WCC jointly with Internews prepared the seven documentary films, based on the real women’s life stories and played by actors. The movie was also follower by the expert’s opinion on the issue, its legal consequences and suggestions on how to deal with the problem, in case someone else will face it. According to Matanat Azizova after being launched in all regional TV channels, these films created great resonance, which was unexpected by its creators. Women from the regions started calling WCC and even sending letters to share their problems and request assistance.
Besides that WCC actively cooperates with newspaper “Yeni Zaman” (New Time), and jointly organize series of the articles that deals with women’s rights problems, including domestic violence, trafficking, sexual harassment, labor rights, etc.
Notwithstanding the great output of the WCC outreach and educational activities, in the majority of the cases the Center cannot provide women with full protection for two main reasons: gaps in the legislation and corruption in courts.
There is no specific legislation concerning domestic violence, laws prohibiting spousal rape or spousal abuse. The new Criminal Code adopted in 2000 includes a provision dealing with physical or psychological suffering caused by violent acts or systematic beatings (Article 133). Articles 126, 127 and 128 address different degrees of intentional infliction of physical harm resulting in health disorders and disabilities. Article 125 provides that threats, cruel treatment or systematic humiliation leading to suicide or attempted suicide of a dependent person may be punished from three to seven years’ imprisonment.
The four-years practices of the WCC shows that generally police tend not to accept application of battered women considering it to be a family issue. Only if a woman had been severally beaten, was hospitalized and had medical examiner confirming infliction of serious bodily injuries, her application had chances to be accepted. However, even if women dared to apply for the legal protection to the court, the maximum penalty which was assigned to violators in the practice of WCC was either fine (which more often affected family budget and brought more harm to women) or three weeks of corrective labor. So, without legislation, which will have stipulations about domestic violence or spousal abuse, it would not be possible to ensure the adequate response to the cases of women’s right violations in Azerbaijan.