I. Introduction This master’s thesis represents study of female newspaper and magazine editors in Azerbaijan based on Western and Soviet definitions of journalism with explanation of local national features of this p

I.2.5 Gender in Azerbaijani media

In order to give temporal depth to the gender issue in the Azerbaijani journalism we need to review some historical processes that took place in modern history of Azerbaijan. The country situated at the shores of the Caspian Sea for the last two centuries went through a significant process of national identity metamorphosis that took it from an agglomeration of medieval Muslim principalities, through one century of Czarist Russia occupation, the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic formed in 1918 and 70 years of communist occupation towards the independent state. The near century rule of the Czarist Russian Empire over territories of Azerbaijan brought along with negative features of colonization ¹⁷ such positive developments as the reduction of theocratic rule and transfer of court system from Islamic theocracy into hands of secular authorities, development of road and railway infrastructures, birth of manufacturing industry and appearance of western type of education.

In this respect it is necessary to mention irreplaceable contribution to the birth of female journalism in Azerbaijan of the oil mogul and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev who in 1911 on January 22^nd established newspaper "Isiq” [Azeri: light]. The newspaper became the cradle of female journalism as well as gave Azerbaijan its first female editor Khadija Alibeyova. Though the newspaper existed only for two years it paved the road for other females to enter the profession.
Among several records that the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic managed to instill in less than two years of its existence was the fact that it became the first Muslim state in the world to give females right to vote and propose equality in law for women and men.¹⁸ Not to mention that it was that period of time (1919-1920) when the first “professional” Azerbaijani female journalist Safiga Afandizade started to publish her articles in the official state newspaper “Azerbaijan”¹⁹.
With these premises in mind, the most valuable accomplishment achieved within the 70 years spent in the Soviet Union, became emancipation of Azerbaijani women. After bringing Azerbaijan under communist control, Soviets initiated campaign to crush dominant position of the religion in the society and emancipate women from religious oppression constituted in a form of compulsory veiling, education restrictions and pre-mature marriages. It took several decades before they could reach the goal and make females active part of the society²⁰.
The Soviet rule aside from years of totalitarianism and the ideological clout gave Azerbaijani population mass employment, compulsory primary and secondary education, enhanced western technologies and science, pulling the country even farther apart from the rest of Muslim world, including those Azerbaijanis left in Iran.
The communist ideology of the early Soviet years, brought new ideal of a woman – builder of socialism that required Azerbaijani women to discard centuries of cultural stereotypes and combine their efforts in formulating, developing and invigorating new mythology of socialist mass culture and journalism. Pivotal role in this campaign played established in 1923 magazine “Eastern Woman” – the official organ of the Azerbaijani Women’s Council edited by bright female journalist Ayna Sultanova.
Moreover, the Soviet period offered women in Azerbaijan opportunities to engage in political and nation building processes through their presence in high political offices within the Communist Party frame. Thus, for example in the years 1920-1921 Russian female revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai was appointed the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Azerbaijan. In 1930 Zahra Kerimova became the first editor of “Azerbaijani woman” magazine, eleven years later she became the first female minister of social welfare and in 1952 she became the first female member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijani SSR.²¹ Among other distinctive achievements of that period, can be mentioned the first in the entire Caucasus female pilot Leyla Mamedbekova, the first female naval captain Sovkat Selimova, the first eastern female movie director Gamar Salamzade or the first female Ph.D. in Oriental studies Aida Imanguliyeva.
The break of the Soviet Union, Independence, Karabakh war and free market reforms (1991 to 1993.) can be regarded as a triumph of the new gender mythology where gender stereotypes have replaced old Soviet ideological ones. High levels of political mobilization and resulting political instrumentalization of media in the 1990s caused that women in that time period were not attracted to newspapers as experts. Speaking of that time period, however, it is impossible to omit female journalist Salatyn Askerova that became an icon of female journalist’s bravery and posthumously was awarded the title “National Hero of Azerbaijan”. The special correspondent of “Molodezh Azerbaijana” [Russian: The Youth of Azerbaijan] newspaper Askerova frequently visited the conflict zone and provided press coverage. On January 9, 1991, Askerova was on her way from Lachin to Shusha to prepare a story for the newspaper. At the 6th kilometer of the Lachin - Shusha highway, in vicinity of Azerbaijani village of Böyük Galaderesi, the UAZ she was traveling in was ambushed by Armenian militia. The investigators counted 113 bullet holes in the vehicle. Such massive barrage resulted in four deaths: Salatyn Askerova and three Red Army officers: Lieutenant-Colonel O. Larionov, Major I. Ivanov and Sergeant I. Goyek.
The 1995-1996 brought a change in media coverage of gender issues and became the period of search for new standards. According to Azerbaijan Gender Information Center in 1996 media monitoring showed that only 1% of all Azerbaijani newspapers’ pages was dedicated to female stories.²²
On the normative level the new Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic enshrined equality of the sexes and created a legal basis for the active participation of both men and women in the process of democratic state-building. According to Article 25 of the Constitution, men and women have equal rights and freedom. The State shall guarantee equality of rights and freedoms for all, regardless of race, nation, religion, language, sex, origin, property, official positions, beliefs, attitudes toward political parties, trade unions and other voluntary organizations.

Moreover, the Article 55 of the Constitution states that all citizens of Azerbaijan regardless of their gender have the right to elect and be elected to public office, and to participate in referendums. Seeing that this is not enough to ensure female participation and establishment of the gender balance in state institutions of the Azerbaijan Republic President Heydar Aliyev on March 6, 2000 issued a decree "On the implementation of state female policy." Yet, despite initially promising developments it did not result in gender equality. The low level of female advancement in senior state positions can be explained by lack of appropriate conditions and opportunities on the entry.

Women in modern capitalistic Azerbaijan, experience inequality firstly in their financial status since employers prefer men rather than women. The reason is stereotype that household routine and children will distract woman from her work not to mention pregnancy that will leave employer with an employee that will be incapacitated for several months. According to the Deputy Chairman of State Committee on Family, Women and Children Sadagat Gahramanova Azerbaijan men dominate almost all spheres of Azerbaijani society and women are not actually involved in decision making process.²³ The problem lies in patriarchal stereotypes that safeguard male dominance through promotion of negative connotations that female emancipation receives in Azerbaijani society.
However, this practice is not a unique feature of Azerbaijan and male “patriarchal” domination already for many decades draws attention of feministic thought that elaborated the term “symbolic annihilation” to describe it. Marc Hooghe and Knut De Swert (2009) argue that females can be marginalized through male interdiction of female humanity, trivializing or mocking them, or by reducing them to a single ‘feminine’ characteristic (Tuchman et al. 1978). Among other numerous examples of this line of research is George Gerbner (1978) who stated that male dominated mass media are “cultivating resistance” towards installation of gender equality. Thus even though the West lived through several waves of emancipation and the gender equality is under constant control the media still use masculine bias in their worldview (e.g., Steiner 1997; Carter et al. 1998) . To conclude this part it is necessary to say that the fact that females are still underrepresented in all major societal institutions, including the area of this research - journalism, despite of attention that the problem receives suggests that male domination is only a tip of the iceberg and more complex processes that are responsible for the status quo still remain hidden. (Marc, Hooghe & Knut De Swert 2009, 4)