“Those who uncover the obvious are like a silent revolution creeping into the society slowly, yearning for change”

that would be the perfect description for the gender equality movement in Azerbaijan. Although there are huge NGOs that we could have picked to talk about, we decided to go with to put a spotlight on those social initiatives that are worth spreading the wording the word about..

Similar Barama media, Equals and Femm were born as a response to discrepancy between what youth wanted to see in their society and the reality that they did not accept. Equals, was a call of a foreigner that believed that gender equality dialogue would prove to be positive in Azerbaijan. On the other hand Femm was a reaction of a citizen that has explored the west, and decided to bring positive change. Although the interviews were taken separately, we in Eurasia Diary saw the great resemblance between those two initiatives and believe it is best to  present them together.

Equals

Equals, grew from friendly discussions in ADA , to a Facebook group in which the initiative found ground to spread. Their first move for change, was  posting articles and discussions,aiming to promote the forgotten female changemakers in Azerbaijani history; Hamida Javanshir was much greater than a few sentences on wikipedia, she was not a just a second  wife of Jalil Mammadguluzadeh, she was lady that marked her name in bold on the pages of Azerbaijani history. For her legacy, Equals decided to add content to her Wikipedia page, for the world to know her better.   FEMM went on similar footsteps; they took interviews from Azerbaijani women, discussing with them their way to success and posted  it in Azerbaijani, in the hopes that a young azerbaijani girl would get the motivation and inspiration to realize her dreams just like those women did.

“To Ignite the discussion about gender equality within the society
....That is our goal .. 
it  will take then its right course ”

In virtual reality, Equals and FEMM were gaining so much popularity that it seemed like destiny to push this movement out of its comfort zone. The move was made gracefully by both organisation; equals went for screening movies in cooperation with Yarat, letting the audience  then slip into discussions and arguments, which resulted with, maybe not many.. But a few going back home, with a thought spinning in their mind, about what could have happened, if we decided to make it more equal.
FEMM was more familiar with video making and producing; they, from their very first day were able to bring together famous Azerbaijani individuals like Afet Baghirova (Faiq Akhmedov’s wife) and Felix Vishnevetzky  to help spread to their fans what gender equality and feminism is, pointing out, that feminism was not .. hatred towards men, feminism was liberty.  

“Feminism for me is equality” The young man, co-founder of FEMM, continued:”If you are 18 years old, you need to comply with several requirements. Men in  society are expected  to have a car, have a business and “do serious things”.” Emil, was the other side in this gender equality in this movement, he decided to be the knight that lets women ride his horse, letting himself with honor become a soldier in the name of equality.  

Emil was able to prove to the society that what he was doing was noble enough to consider, when his movie earned third place in the Youth Filmmakers Baku category for amateurs.
Emil, is one in a million that decided to lead an initiative, and speak of femininity, this fact Equals, are pretty aware of, the four girls, understand the importance of attracting men into the discussion. This is why one of their first mission is to include men into their discussions. Nazekat told Eurasia Diary, that Equals in one of their events even welcomed a group of men, who stood against gender equality just to see them smoothen to what they discovered to be feminism and accepted it, becoming a part of the movement.

FEMM

The road to gender equality, proved to be quite long, the only way to keep steadily moving was to be creative and innovative, and that is exactly what Equals and FEMM keep doing. As a future project, Equals, are collecting success stories of Azerbaijani women in history and modern day, to put them in a book, for it to become another open door for hope and inspiration for boys and girls.
FEMM is expected to launch its third short video; its goal is to  sight out  stereotypical sentences of men, and crash them in a second, by reminding the world that the other 50% of the world exists as well - women.

“We try to engage men into our group, we are not just …
those four girls for gender equality”

 

One more time, we in Eurasia Diary took a step back to look at the bigger picture of the gender equality movement in Azerbaijan. We saw the details, we see the gaps, we saw gray , colorful and black. We discovered that  there was much more details to add, so much to define, find, draw, color and act. FEMM and Equals completed each other, one showed a story, another brought the discussion to life. Both believed in equality, and decided to be the ones to bring it to act.  Just like them, you and I can make a change.

They want to become an integral part of the Azerbaijani society. At one moment they want to see it . The day before you came up with the name of the project he heard one song which changed the world once upon the time - You may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one. May be it's time to make dream come true, time for some changes.

Authors: Emil Aliyev , Yasmeen Abdulhak

Photo by Sitara Ibrahimova