RESUME
Educational Reforms
The system of higher education in the Azerbaijan Republic
consists of the following types of state and private institutions:
universities, academies, institutes, colleges and conservatoires. One of the
most important reforms is the transition to a multi-level system of higher professional
education in compliance with the Law on Education approved in October, 1992. In
its provisions the Law sets guarantees of the equal access to the primary,
undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate educational levels for both genders.
This new Law
defined and legislated the general principles and structure of the entire
education system in Azerbaijan
and in addition permitted the establishment of private educational
institutions. The Law
approved the following credentials (from law to upper levels): Bakalavr,
Magistr, Doctorate (PhD), The Doktor Nauk (should have been phased out, but
still undergoes considerations on the necessity of this educational level).
Institutions have the right to choose their approach to the multi-level
education of specialists, determine the contents of this education, and draw up
academic plans for these disciplines. The only restrictions are those imposed
by the requirements of state educational standards to maintain a minimum of
knowledge. They have acquired independence in financial in management matters
and can therefore obtain their own financial resources.
Another important achievement of the Law was establishment of the
National Entrance examination for the prospectus students. The examination is
held in several installations according to the group of specialities. In total
higher education specialities included to admission plan are classified in five
groups: technical specialities, economic, humanitarian, medical and
pedagogical.
According to the brochure "Gender Aspects of Admission Examination
Results to Higher Education Schools" published by the State Admissions
Commission, in the year 2004 among total number of 90680 applications to the
higher educational institutions, boys comprised 48.52 percent and girls 51.48
percent. The statistical analyses of the State Admissions Commission testify
that since establishment of the National Entrance examination the number of
girls applicants exceeded the correspondent number of boys. However, when it
comes to the admission to the high schools, the statics on the percentage of
boys and girls admitted to the higher educational institutions shows the
reversed numbers. For example, in 2004 the total number of applicants admitted
to the higher educational institutions of the country made up 12500 boys
(28.79%) and 11783 girls (25.55%). This gap does not testify that boys get
better training than girls for the admission examination, what in some cases
might be true. But may find its explanation in the number of boys and girls students
admitted to the private schools, where the pass level requires lesser points
than admission to the state universities. The figures show that the total
number of boys admitted to the private universities exceeds the number of girls
on about 25%. This gender disparity proves that parents are more eager to pay
for the higher education of their male children, who will be the future
breadwinners of their families.
The
statistic results also confirmed that in choice of the profession applicants
are driven by the social stereotypes about "male" and "female" professions. For
example, girls comprise 96.06 percent of applicants to group, where offered
specialities are psychology and pedagogy. Boys give preference to the technical
specialities (mathematics, physics, engineering, etc.) - 74.81 percent and to
the economic group of specialities (economy, management and geography) - 74.76
percent. The number of female applicants to the humanitarian and medical
specialities is slightly higher than that of males and makes up 62.99 and 59.97
percent respectively.
Currently the new project of the Law on Education undergoes
considerations in the Parliament of Azerbaijan. The aim of the new Law is to
increase status of the secondary schools and to introduce the single final examination.
While undergoing discussions in the higher institutions of Azerbaijan the Law received the
number of amendments and now is revised in the Commission of Public Education
in the Parliament of Azerbaijan. However, one of the recommendations of the
academic circles was already taken into account and in April 2005 the President
of Azerbaijan signed the decree on the single entrance examination to the
graduate level of study.
Gender education became recently a concern of the Ministry of Education
of the Republic
of Azerbaijan. Besides
revising and approving curricula on different gender courses, now the Ministry
has a focal point on gender issues. Within the ministerial structure was
created a new position of Representative on Gender Issues, whose main mission
is achievement of gender balance in the educational system.
Political situation in Azerbaijan
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 the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan adopted in 1995. The
possibilities for action within the newly emerged civil society are seen to be
equally open for men and women. However, the practice shows that we cannot
consider civil society and political arena to be a gender-neutral space for
women.
The
whole political theories and practices in Azerbaijan are based on the
strength and importance of the family and kinship ties. Within this framework
women are supposed to play a very important and respectful role as mothers and
providers of the new state ideology and national values. But along with this
favorable esteem, the societal discourse puts restrictions on the involvement
of women in the public sphere and limits their roles to motherhood and
house-holding.
However,
the current authority of Azerbaijan
considers the problem of gender equality as an issue affecting the further
integration of Azerbaijan
into the international and European communities. Within the last years the
state authorities had recognized that achievement of the real equality is
possible via integration of gender issues into the State programs and
establishment of appropriate mechanisms. Thus, the attempt of replacing the
"protection" concepts with regard to women with gender approach was done in the
Presidential Decree "On Implementation of the State Women's Policy in Azerbaijan"
issued in 2000. However even this document could not stand praising women as
"source of life and embodiment of wisdom".
In 2004
with the purpose of creation of the real state mechanisms for securing gender
equality the State Committee of Women's Issues, established in 1998, worked out
the Draft of the Law "On State Guarantees of Equal Rights for Women and Men".
This Law stipulates the state guarantees for securing equal rights and
opportunities for men and women and was drafted with methodological assistance
of the experts of the Council of Europe. The Law passed the discussions in the
commission of the Azerbaijan Parliament Milli Majlis. However, as it was stated
by the deputy of Milli Majlis and one of the advocates of the Law Ms. Malahat
Hasanova during the conference "Gender Equality and Azerbaijan", there are strong
forces in Milli Majlis, which create impediments for the Law discussion on the
plenary session. According to Ms. Hasanova their main argument is that we
already have provisions on gender equality in the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and there is no necessity to
adopt additional document. This discussion reveals the low level of sensitivity
towards gender issues among the deputies of the national parliament, including
women.
Even the
Constitution of the Republic
of Azerbaijan and number
of the legal documents stipulates the equality of both sexes, the analyses of
gender situation in the country testifies the existence of gender disbalance at
all levels of the society and especially in participation in decision making
bodies. Currently there are no women serving as Ministers in the Cabinet of
Ministers of the Republic
of Azerbaijan, total
number of women elected to the Parliament is 13%. On the background of the
state policies on advancement and promotion of women in the state institutions,
we had witnessed recent dismissal of 2 women from the positions of the Heads of
the Executive Committees in the regions of Azerbaijan and two women-chiefs of
the judicial bodies: High Court and Court of Appeals. In the mean time no women
were appointed to these or the similar rank positions.
Notwithstanding this hypocritical
environment in political sphere, ruling political forces in Azerbaijan
generally supported initiatives of Gender education. Thus, the first program
"Gender: The New Stage of Women's Problem" was aimed at rising gender
awareness among broad public in the capital and the region. This program was
initiated by the UNDP together with the Cabinet of Ministers and conducted by
the Social Union "Gender and Human Rights" in 1998. First educational project
"Women in the Social Conflict" was started at the Academy
of Public Administration under the
President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan with the
financial support of the World Bank. In 2000 the third-year Bachelor's student
were lectured the course "Gender Politics". The same year Network Women's
Program - OSI announced a grant competition and collected proposals for the
creation of Gender Studies Center, which would be university/inter-university
center, concentrating local scholars efforts to research and curriculum
development in Women/Gender Studies. This Center was established the same year
under the Western
University in June 2000.
Within the
operating period of 5 years the Center successfully conducted number of
projects and what is more important managed to create the core of the academic
researchers in Gender Studies in Azerbaijan. Starting from the point
zero, the Center gathered together large academic circles, the majority of whom
comprise women, but tended always to include men into the project's activities.
The target of the Center was not only quantitative increase of the teaching
staff of Gender Studies in the Azerbaijani higher institutions, but also
enhancing quality of the educational curriculum and course materials. The
Center partially managed to reach this goal and as illustration for it serves
the materials of the scientific conference "Development of Gender
Education in the Context of Contemporary Social-political Transformations" held
in Baku in
2004, which positively differs from the early conferences conducted by the Center.
In total 150 people participated in the conference activities including foreign
guests, state officials, representatives of international and national NGOs and
local academic community. The essays and reports were published as conference
materials, which present interesting accounts on development of gender studies
in Azerbaijan
and further integration of gender approach in different areas.
On the
other hand, one cannot deny the existence of the conservative forces within the
academic elite, who hinders the inclusion of gender studies into the
educational curriculum. The main sounded objections of this group is perception
of Gender Studies as a vogue, a fashionable trend in the Azeri academy, mainly
connected with the availability of funding for the research activities in this
area. As soon as the findings will be ceased the interest to the subject as
well as the activities within it would be commenced. The followers of this
approach neglect the fact, that Gender Studies in Azerbaijan had been started by the
group of enthusiasts, who within these years built up the core of gender
researchers. Nowadays, Gender Studies in Azerbaijan firmly entered into the
curriculum of the higher institutions and try co-exist along side with other
humanitarian disciplines.
Hence, the
more dangerous objection is a denial to consider Gender Studies as the
full-scale humanitarian discipline. The critiques of Gender Studies argue that
it is not possible to build up the discipline, which has in its categories
apparatus the only the concepts of "sex", "gender" and derived from them
"feminity" and "masculinity". This shows the lack of knowledge and narrow
understanding of the subject of Gender Studies, which besides analyses of
male-female relationships focuses on the power hierarchies of the societies,
operating at the same time with such concepts as class, race, ethnicity and
citizenship.
In my
opinion, in order to overcome this skepticism, academic community interested in
development of Gender Studies should work more towards the development of the
researches incorporating gender methodology and departmentalization of Gender
Studies within the structures of the universities.
Institutions and Organizations Involved in Realization of Gender
Programs
Different sources present different statistics on
number of NGOs involved in realization of Gender programs in Azerbaijan.
Their number is ranging from 50 to more than 100 organizations registered or
just submitted registration documents to the Ministry of Justice. Some of the
sources while talking about gender programs presents the statistics only on
Women's NGOs, which however distorts the real situation as not all women's NGOs
in Azerbaijan
are involved in Gender Programs and gender problematic often becomes the focus
of other types of NGOs such as educational, human rights, etc.
Azerbaijan Gender Information
Center created the
database of the projects connected to some extend with gender problematic,
which were conducted by the local NGOs starting from the year 1997. In total
database contains information about 262 projects tackling gender issues in Azerbaijan
conducted by 68 NGOs. However, not many of NGOs are involved in educational
work and quite few are research oriented. The majority of them are specialized
in specific training delivery dealing with particular problem or range of the
corresponding problems to the focus groups, such as women-IDPs, women
entrepreneurs and etc. For example, 28% of projects are aimed at the protection
of the reproductive health, 19 % - target the problems of domestic violence and
trafficking, 17% deal with Women's Human Rights, etc.
The main organization which had implemented
educational or research activities in Gender Studies are the following: Gender
Studies Center under the Western University, Social Research Center AREAT,
Gender and Human Rights Research Union, Empowering Education, NGOs Forum on
Migration Issues, Institute for Peace and Democracy, Clean World, Jewish Women's Society, "Sensiz" Widows Society, Association of Women's
Journalists, Youth Women's Center "Shams", Creative Women's Association,
Azerbaijan Gender Association "Symmetry", Sociologists Association of
Azerbaijan, etc.
Taking into account the
main emphasis of the current report on the status of Gender Education in Azerbaijan, I will concentrate more in details
on the activities of two NGOs involved in educational and research activities
in the higher institutions: Gender Studies Center
under the Western University and Gender and Human Rights research Union.
Gender Studies
Center under the Western University
Gender Studies Center
(GSC) operating within the Western
University has been
founded in June 2000.
According
to the Statute the main missions of
the GSC are:
-
Dissemination and development of
gender approach to the analyses of social life that is new for the Azeri
society;
-
Integration of this method into
scientific researches and syllabi.
Gender
Studies Center
provides conditions for scholars and teachers that study gender aspect for
various social and humanitarian (philosophy, economic theory, law, history,
psychology, political science, sociology, culture study) subjects.
Activities of Gender Studies Center includes
the following trends:
-
conduct of researches regarding
gender and women's problems;
-
integration of the gender theory
into social and humanitarian sciences;
-
development of scientific and social
relations (organization and participation in conferences, workshops and
symposia);
-
educational, scientific and
awareness activity;
-
publications of GSC.
GSC
aims to analyze and discuss the following problems:
-
individum individual and his/her
attitude toward the society;
-
freedom and its limitations;
-
differences among people and the
necessity to ensure equal rights;
-
family, marriage and religion;
-
traditional and democratic values.
During the
period of its operation
Center implemented
several projects.
The first project «Interdisciplinary programs of
gender education in the system of higher education of Azerbaijan»
was implemented with the support of Central
European University
(Budapest)
within the framework of program "Gender and Culture" and OSI-AF NWP from June, 2000 to June, 2001. Within the
framework of the Project, syllabi on the following social and humanitarian
disciplines have been developed: philosophy, political science, sociology,
cultural studies, psychology, economics, and employment of population. Syllabi
included thematic plan, themes worked out for study, and list of recommended
sources. Syllabi were approved by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
published in 300 copies and distributed among all the higher educational
institutions of Azerbaijan.
In 2002 on
the basis of syllabi approved by the Ministry of Education the researchers of
Gender Studies Center prepared and published 9 course manuals as well as their
collection in the book entitled "Gender:
History, Society, Culture". This
was the second project of the Gender
Studies Center,
which was made possible with financial assistance of Open Society
Institute - Assistance Foundation.
These projects were continued in
2004 when researches of the Gender Studies
Center
prepared and published curriculums and manuals for 6 more social and
humanitarian disciplines including philology, conflict study, journalism, art
criticism, anthropology and ecology.
In 2003 Gender Studies
Center organized trainings for
faculty members of the Azerbaijan
higher schools within the project "Methodology
of Application of Basics of Gender in Social and Humanitarian Disciplines".
This project was financially supported by the Open Society Institute -
Assistance Foundation. The trainings were organized within 5 modules: Political
Science and History; Philosophy and Cultural Studies; Psychology and Sociology;
Economics and Employment; Law.
Trainings
in each module were held in two (in Azerbaijani and Russian languages) groups,
during 5 days 4 academic hours each day. For realization of the project 18
trainers and 32 exerts were involved. 9 of them were the authors of syllabi and
courses of lectures, participants of many conferences and workshops. Total
number of trainees amounted to 221 people, including 127 faculty, 10
administrators of educational institutions and departments, 13 senior research
fellows, 17 junior research fellows, 15 senior laboratory assistants and
assistant teachers, and 23 graduate students.
The Gender Studies
Center also acted
as an organizer of the number of scientific and practical conferences, which
gathered together researchers in gender studies and women activists from Azerbaijan and
neighbor countries. Below is the list of conferences held by center:
-
"Integration
of the gender theory into social and humanitarian discipline"- December,
23 2000
-
"Theoretical Methodological Aspects
of Problems of Gender Education in the System of Higher Education" - March 9, 2002
-
"Development
of Gender Education in the Context of Contemporary Social-political
Transformations" - March 27, 2003.
Taking
into consideration current situation Gender Studies
Center developed the strategy
of advancement of gender education to the closest perspective under the title:
"The Main Problems of Development of
Gender Education in Azerbaijan
and their Solution at the National Level". Strategy consists of 4
sections:
1.
Participation in drafting of gender equality policy
as an articulated aim of the reformation and modernization of education in Azerbaijan.
2.
Creation of the new opportunities for the further
development of gender education and gender researches.
3.
Increase of gender awareness, quality of training and
gender qualification.
4.
Organizational questions.
In December 2003 this strategy was considered with
participation of the executives of the Ministry of Education, the Academic
council of the Western
University.
Gender and Human Rights Research Union
"Gender
and Human Rights" Research Union is a non-governmental organization
uniting philosophers, lawyers, political scientists, sociologists, historians,
economists, philologists. The aim of the Union is to analyze the reciprocity of
gender relations and human rights problem within the conditions of democratic
development and ideological pluralism in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
From this perspective the Union implements the following tasks: research on
human rights from the point of view of gender balance; investigation of social,
philosophical and legal conceptions, theories and tendencies in connection with
human rights and gender aspects; explanation of the influence of
public-political-legal institutions on the development of human rights and
gender; analysis of the situation in the electoral system on the background of
human rights and gender. The activities of the Union includes organization of
the scientific practical seminars, round-tables, training, and conferences
devoted to gender relations and human rights; creation of the information network
on human rights and gender relations for the development of democratic
processes; organization of the sociological polls; scientific analysis aimed at
studying the sphere of gender and human rights; etc. The Union
conducts researches on Human Rights and Gender issues using them in its
educational activities. One of its key goals Union
considers scientific and educational work directed to building up the healthy
family on the basis of Human Rights and gender equality.
The Union started its activities in 1998 with the
organization of the republican conference "Gender: a new stage of women's
problem" jointly with UNDP Gender in Development Project. Within the
framework of the same project the Union organized public opinion poll among 450
people in the regions of Azerbaijan,
which had been published then in a book format. On March 18, 2000, the Union
was registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The Union shows its adherence to the principles of gender balance even at its
scientific board, where Ms. Rena Mirzazade (Ph.D.) is acting as a chairwoman
and Prof. Ali Abasov as a chairman of the Union.
Since
registration the Union implemented a number of
projects connected with gender research and raising awareness on gender issues
in broad public. For example in 2000 the Union
issues 4 editions of the "Gendershunaslig" ("Gender Studies") journal in
Russian and in Azeri languages.
In 2002 the
project get its continuation and number of seminars were conducted in the
regions of Azerbaijan with
the financial support of the Embassy of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In 2003 the Union conducted seminars "Women Appeal for Peace in the Southern
Caucasus" in Nakhichevan AR,
Zagatali, Balaken, Kakh, Sabirabad, Hajikabul, Ali-Bayramli regions of Azerbaijan
under the aegis of UNIFEM.
In 2004 the
Union within the framework of the project "Gender in Education and
Application", sponsored by the Women's Network Program, OSI - Azerbaijan, held
three cycles of educational courses for students, teachers and representatives
of Women's NGOs, finalized by the joint conference: "Gender and Education".
Conference materials, findings and recommendations to the Ministry of Education
and other relevant governmental structures are currently in print. Conference participants
approved the initiative of the Union to set up
the Republican Public Council on coordination of educational and research
activities on gender and women's problematic. The Union took up upon itself the
responsibility to establish in Baku
and regions "Gender Schools" in order to popularize gender studies among
broader public.
The Union is also actively engaged in publishing activities.
The Union had published number of books,
monographs and collections in Azeri language, which will be discussed later in
this report.
Gender Education and
Research Projects
As it was already mentioned above
Gender Studies as research area are relatively new for Azerbaijan.
Even there is large number of accounts on women's issues and problems in Azerbaijan developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, only few of them might be described as
gender researches. The majority of studies were conducted by non-professionals
who were not familiar or had difficulties in use of the correspondent gender
methodology.
Very interesting analysis on Azeri
women in post-soviet environment were done by the ethnical Azeri women of
Iranian origin, residing currently in the US: Farideh Heyat (Azeri
Professional Women's Life Strategies in the Soviet Context (2000) and Azeri
Women in Transition. Women in Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan (2002); Nayereh Tohidi
(The Intersection of Gender, Ethnicity and Islam in Soviet and Post-Soviet
Azerbaijan (1997) and Gender and National Identity in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan: a
Regional Perspective (2000); and Manujeh Sabi (The Impact of Economic and
Political Transformation on Women: the Case of Azerbaijan (1999). However, even
the status of outsiders possibly gives some advantages while examination of
women's lives, the researchers sometimes confronted difficulties in grasping
the meaning of social behavior of Azeri women. For example, Farideh Heyat was
surprised with the high interest towards all kinds of fortune-telling among the
highly educated women, or great submission of educated women to the wishes of
their husbands in their personal and professional life issues, such as of
visiting trainings or conferences abroad or even within the republic.
Currently there is strong necessity
in development of Azeri professionals who will be able to reveal the impact of
social, political and economic transformation on women's lives and professional
strategies, as well as issues of gender equality within the country. Only in
this case we will have more comprehensive practical tools to develop the gender
equality strategies at all levels: in governmental programs, curriculum of
educational institutions, and even in the funding directions of the donors.
One of the first steps towards this goal was Gender Studies
Mini-School conducted in
May 2000. The 4-days Mini-school was organized in Baku by the NWP OSI in collaboration with CEU
Gender & Culture Department for the representatives of the NGOs of
Azerbaijan and university faculty. Unfortunately, this school was not
transformed into the traditional one and yet there were no Seasonable Schools
on Gender Education held in Azerbaijan.
However, Azeri faculty members actively take
opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills and actively participate in
the International Schools and Research Conferences held on the territory of the
former Soviet Union and in foreign countries.
For example, they had made contributions to the activities of such well-known
international schools and conferences as SUN project on Gender Education of the
Central European
University, Budapest,
Italy, European Conference
"Gender Equality in Higher Education", Summer Schools in Foros and Kharkiv, Ukraine,
internship at the Moscow Center for Gender Studies, Russia, etc.
In fall 1999, the Visiting Scholars from Azerbaijan participated in Women's Studies
classes Purdue University, meeting with women's
organizations, and attending a series of seminars conducted by women from the
University and Gender Lafayette communities.
One of the significant research projects done in Azerbaijan was
Women's Memories Project, aimed at creation the country's non-official history
through women's stories. In January 2001, the Training on Women's Oral History
was held for women's NGOs with the financial support of Network Women's Program
- OSI. Two beneficiaries of this project: Olga Rzayeva and Lala Sariyeva
published their researches: "Tragic Events of January 20, 1990, through
Azerbaijan Women's Eyes" and "Women's Memories as Reflection of Social,
Political and Cultural Life in 20th century Azerbaijan".
As an example of the activities connected with
research presentation can be listed the Forth Conference of Young Researches on
Gender Issues "Gender Attitudes in the Modern Society: Global and Local" in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, in October, 2004. The
conference, organized by the Neva Institute of Language and Culture, Russia
Pedagogical University and Saint-Petersburg Academy of Public Administration,
gave opportunity to the young researchers from different educational fields,
starting from the mid-Bachelors to PhD levels, to sound their own vision of
gender problematic. Two representatives from Azerbaijan
presented the research projects on "Impact of Globalization on Women's Problems
in Azerbaijan" and "Veiled
Women in Azerbaijan".
Both of the reports got positive response from the academic circles and
conference participants and one of them was considered as the best within the
section and will be published in the collection of the conference essays.
The First International Competition of Gender
Researches should be mentioned as another example of the effective
international gender educational project. This competition was conducted in
July-September 2004 within the framework of the program "Development of Gender
Education in Post-Soviet Countries". The competition is a component of
three-years innovation program for the whole region. According to organizers -
Women's Network Program of the "Open Society Institute" - every gender
educational program should take into account specificity of cultural interests
and everyday reality of the focus auditorium and all the attitudes towards
gender equality should be grounded on the researches on women's lives in the
particular country.
The main
goal of the research project's competition was to encourage researchers aimed
at the examination of the actual gender problems of every particular country,
the results of which further might be used in the educational programs and
lecture courses on gender disciplines.
In total
for participation in the competition were submitted 86 proposal from Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Georgia, Kyrgyzistan,
Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan.
Only 27 out of them had been selected for the semi-final. After the thorough
examination the best 12 projects were recognized as the project-winners with 4
projects among them elaborated by the Azerbaijani researchers.
Below is
the list of the projects:
-
Ibragimbekova
R.: "Gender Analysis of the Political Sphere in Azerbaijan and Development of the
Educational Programs on the Basis of the Collected Data";
-
Gender Researches Center " Gender equality aspects in the education"
-
Abasov A.
and Kasumova Y.: "Cross-Cultural Research of Gender Stereotypes in the Modern
Azeri Society as Factor for Construction of Life Strategies of the People in
the Transitional Period";
-
Mamedova
M. and Mahmudov M.: "Impact of the New Economic Activities on the Gender
Relations in the Post-Soviet Azerbaijan".
Besides
receiving research grant, these researches participated in the special Winter International
School, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey,
from January 30 to February 8. This Winter
School created for them
an opportunity to discuss and comment on each other's projects and to get
valuable guidance and recommendations from supervisors.
Gender Education
Out of
total 42 higher institutions in Azerbaijan,
Gender Studies was introduced into curriculum of 5 universities: Baku State University, Academy
of Public Administration under the
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku
Slavic University,
Western University
and Khazar University. The first three higher
institutions have the status of state institutes, whereas the two latter are
private universities.
As it was
already mentioned the first course in Azerbaijan
on Gender Studies "Gender Politics" had been lectured in the Academy of Public Administration
for the third-year Bachelor's students of the departments of political science
and international relations in Azeri and Russian languages. The thematic plan
of the course had undergone little changing since the year of its establishment
and is presented in the Appendix 1.
Within the
framework of the project "Women for Conflict Prevention and Peace in
the Southern Caucasus" UNIFEM worked out the course: "Introduction to
Conflict Studies. Increasing Women's Role in Conflict Resolutions". Out of total
36 of course lectures 4 hours are solely dedicated to the women's activities in
conflict prevention and resolution. This course was approved by the Ministry of
Education in 2003 and is being lectures in 7 higher institutions: Academy of Public Administration,
Western University,
Baku State
University, Khazar
University, Slavic
University, State
Pedagogical University
named after N. Tusi and Odlar
Urdu University.
Baku State University is offering gender courses within four main directions:
1.
Gender
Sociology
2.
Gender
Philosophy
3.
Gender
Psychology
4.
Social and
Political Aspects of Gender
Baku Slavic University offers special courses on Women' Issues:
1.
Rights on
Education
2.
Education
and Health
3.
Women's
Rights in Azerbaijan
4.
Women's
Human Rights and Human Rights
5.
Women and
Violence
6.
Women and
their Peace Building Activities
In Khazar University
students are offered the courses on:
1.
Gender
studies
2.
Women's
rights are human rights
3.
Women in
transition period: reality and participation in peace-building activity
4.
Women's
role in peaceful resolution of conflicts
5.
Women's
social protection
6.
Gender
asymmetry
The
largest number of Gender Studies courses were introduces at the Western University:
1.
Gender
aspects in history of Azerbaijan
2.
Gender
aspects in political sciences
3.
Gender
aspects in philosophy
4.
Gender
sociology
5.
Gender and
culture
6.
Psychological
aspects of gender problematic
7.
Gender
aspect in the economical theory
8.
Legal
aspects of gender researches
9.
Gender
aspects of employment the population in Azerbaijan Republic
10. Gender in Politics and International Relations:
Theoretical and Practical Perspectives
The
curriculum for the first nine courses has been developed at the Gender Studies
Center under the Western University.
These syllabi have been approved by Ministry of Education of
the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2001, published and
circulated between the higher educational institutions. The curriculum for the last course on Gender attitudes
in Political Science and International Relations had been developed
independently in 2004. Even most of these courses have been registered as
selective, Azerbaijani higher institutions do not have articulated system,
which will give students opportunity to choose which courses are most
interested to attend. So, even if gender course in its curriculum is specified
as elective, students, in fact, have to attend it along with mandatory ones.
On the
bases of the developed course syllabi the researchers of Gender Research
Center had done a great
job in preparation of the lecture courses. This work had been done in two
installments within two projects implemented in 2002 and 2004. The collection
of the lecture courses of the first nine modules listed in the Appendix 2 was
published in the book entitled: "Gender: History, Society and Culture".
Currently the Center publishes the collection of the six more modules developed
last years as a continuation of the previous project and the textbooks.
Giving the high value and appreciation to the efforts
and endeavors of the authors of the developed lecture courses of gender issues
for the first time in Azerbaijan,
many of them has serious shortcomings. Though the course lectures were
developed within the project "Interdisciplinary Programs for Gender Education
in the Higher Educational System in Azerbaijan", it seems that most of
the faculty is not familiar with the principles of interdisciplinarity and
choose instead multidisciplinary approach. It is obvious that authors of the
lecture courses are coming from the different traditional discipline background
and try to incorporate gender studies into the given discipline(s) borders.
This leads to the application of the already worked out disciplinary
methodology in studies of gender issues and constrains development of gender
specific account on the given issue. However, as it was mentioned many times by
gender scholars "Interdisciplinarity involves not simply the use of more than
one discipline to solve a problem or analyze an issue but also integration of
disciplines to create a new epistemology; to rebuild the prevailing structure
of knowledge; and to create new organizing concepts, methodologies, or skills[1]".
The other issue originating partially from the lack
of interdisciplinarity is an attempt to substitute in some of the lecture
courses gender approach with the widely criticized principle conventionally
formulated as "Add women and stir". That means that lecture courses have been
developed within the borders of the traditional disciplines and tend to
overcome the only failure of all other disciplinary readers - lack of women.
This can be traced in the lecture course on Gender and History, where the
author have done the great work in restoring accounts on women's lives in the
history of Azerbaijan. However, still it does not remain clear for the reader
why all this women's lives have been invisible for such a long period of
teaching History as a discipline.
In some of the lecture courses the legitimacy of
feminist scholars is still questioned. In response to them authors try to
create a detached field of study "Genderology". For example, in the reader on
Gender and Philosophy, the author discusses the problems of the reality and
matter, object and subject within the philosophical school of reason based on
the traditional dichotomies of ‘masculine' and ‘feminine'. For example, he
tends to equate maleness with reason and rationality, whereas feminity with
irrationality and emotions: "Human life is the same struggle of the sensual
feminine and conceptual masculine origins in every person irrespective of his
sex[2]". The lecture
course does neither present students any alternative philosophical accounts
developed, for example, by constructivists, deconstructivists or
post-modernists and the only women-philosopher refered is Simone de Bivoir.
Author as well does not consider feminism as a school worse any studies as he
presents its definition as follows: "Feminism is as old as time endeavor to
impose on person certain social roles, originated in the distorted perceptions
about his biological essence"[3]. Besides this
strong essentialist approach the author seems to lack gender sensitivity as he
refers to the subject of examination - ‘person' or ‘individual' - using only
masculine pronouns.
Some of the lecture courses are even of an ambiguous
character. For example, very interesting reader "Gender and Journalism"
presents many accounts on interrelation of gender and journalism and on the
double-sided relations between them. On the one hand author talks about
enforcement of gender stereotypes through gender insensitive articles or
advertisements, whereas on the other hand gives concrete examples of the
subversive potential of the mass media. But at the beginning of the book the
author contradicts himself when it comes to the discussion of the biological
and social in gender roles. He discusses brain differences of men and women
discovered by American neurologist Roger Gorsky at the California University
in Los-Angeles and comes to the conclusion that our nature had assigned
different tasks for men and women embodied in their brain structure. The author
claims that: "Innovation in all businesses is a male mission", whereas "women
can lead the solution of already known tasks to the perfection"[4]. However, in the
next chapter the author is criticizing biodeterminism: "Using this approach the
researchers usually study impact of gender as biological or social category on
the study object. If it was possible to discover any differences, they are
assigned to the differences between gender groups (women and men), what in its
essence is tautology, as the researcher a-priory establishes discourse of their
differences, basically referring women and men to different social and
demographic categories[5]". It seems that
author is criticizing his assumptions in the previous chapter and this open
contradiction remains unanswered through the whole lecture course.
At the same
time I would like to emphasize the successful presentation of gender concepts
in the lectures courses on Gender and Political Science, Gender and Sociology,
Gender Aspects of the Economical Theory, Legal Aspects of Gender Research,
Gender and Anthropology, etc. This teaching materials present the alternative
points of view on the society and initiate discussions on the topics, which
just recently were perceived as natural and unquestioned.
Academic Community:
Academic
Community engaged in gender activities is not numerous but is constantly
growing. The largest share of the scholars interested in Gender Issues is
academics coming from different humanitarian backgrounds. Currently there are
only few people who have graduate degrees in Gender Studies gained in the
American or European
Universities.
On 18
December 1998 by the decree of the Presidium of the Azerbaijan
Scientific Academy
under the Institute
of Philosophy and Law was
established department "New Trends in Philosophy and Gender Studies". The
department is engaged in working out the methodology, concepts and theoretical
baseline for people interested in post-graduate studies on gender problematic.
The activities of the department are aimed at establishment of the Azerbaijan Gender Studies
School, which will differ
by its own pave and traditions. "New Trends in Philosophy and Gender Studies"
is the first department within the state institution concerning gender issues
in Azerbaijan.
Currently there are total staff of 16 people working in the department. The
chief of the Department is Doctor of Philosophy, Prof. Ali Abbasov. Department
is also engaged in assistance to the scholars writing their academic research
on gender subjects. Currently department is working with 4 dissertants and
aspirants.
The first
person in Azerbaijan
to defend the Doctoral thesis in Gender Studies is Ms. Rena Mirzazadeh on the
theme: "Gender in Philosophical, Historical, Political and Legal Analysis".
Recently deputy of national Parliament Malahat Hasanova defended her PhD thesis
on the topic: "Role of Women's Movement in Azerbaijan
in the Struggle for Independence".
The dissertation of Tamam Jafarova on the similar topic "Role of Women in the
National Independence Struggle in 1985-2005" had been approved in the Baku State
University, but was not
defended yet.
The number
of under-graduate and graduate students who choose gender issues as topics of
their thesis increases every year in the Western
University, Baku
State University,
Academy of Public Administration and other higher
education institutes. According to the senior lecture of the Academy of Public
Administration Yelena Kasumova, gender topics
were fist introduced to the Master Degree students in 2001 and only one student
selected it for her paper. In 2003 gender topics were introduced to Bachelors
and selected by one student. In 2004 two students in the Academy holding Master
and Bachelor's degrees selected gender issue related topics for their theses.
In 2005 already 3 Bachelor students and 2 Masters selected gender as a theme
for their papers. Besides Academy of Public Administration several defenses on gender
related topics were held in the Western
University and Baku States
University. This trend
brings us the optimism about the perspectives of gender studies development in Azerbaijan.
Publications:
The first
pioneers of gender studies in Azerbaijan
had experienced an obvious lack of textbooks and learning materials. They were
using mainly publications available in Russian or English languages, which were
brought mainly from trainings, seminars or conferences abroad. However recently
number of publications in Azeri language increased, but still cannot be
characterized as sufficient.
Even there
were many publications in Azeri about the lives of Azeri women in the soviet or
post-soviet era, none of them might be consider to have gender sensitive
approach to the topic. Only within the last years there were issued number of
books, which deals explicitly or implicitly with gender problematic. For
example in the collection of the library of Gender
Information Center
there are 13 books on gender problematic in Russian and 20 books in Azeri
languages complied published in Azerbaijan
since 1998.
The Gender Information
Center tries to fulfill
the missing gaps and since the year of its establishment worked out the number
of publications. For example, in 2002 the Center had published two books:
"Ekofeminism" and "Cyber feminism". In 2003 was published for the first time "European
Women's Thesaurus" in three languages (Azeri, Russian, English). The same year
was published the collection of informational resources on gender available in
the Internet: "Popular Informational Gender Resources" and annotated
bibliographical guide "Gender in Azerbaijan Periodicals 2000-2002". In 2005 the
Center published "Regional Directory of Women's Groups", which presents contact
information of women's NGOs from the Eastern Europe.
Currently the historical account on women's activism in the Southern Caucasus:
"Traditions of Women's Movement in Azerbaijan" is in print.
After the
adoption of the "Platform of Action" of the Fourth World Conference on Women
in: Beijing in 1995 the State Statistical
Committee every year publishes statistical reference book "Women and Men in Azerbaijan".
This account presents statistics analyzed and compared through prism of gender
differences in Azerbaijan
society.
Gender Studies Center
under the Western
University is engaged in
translations of the key publications into Azeri language, which mainly can be
used for teachers in gender studies as manuals or course materials. For
example, in 2002 the Center published in Azeri «Oxfam Gender Training Manual» (UK).
The
majority of publications in Azeri language had been done by the Union "Gender and Human Rights". For example, within the
framework of the project "Gender Library" the Union published the following
books: "Gender Studies in Azerbaijan"
(2002), "Gender. Philosophy. Culture" (2003), "Gender in Azerbaijan" (2003),
"Introduction to Gender Studies" (2004), "Women's Problem in the History of the
Fine Art and Social Thought in Azerbaijan", "Elections and Gender Factor"
(2004), etc. The project "Gender Library" was funded by the Women's Network
Program OSI and Eurasia Foundation.
However,
the number of valuable books on gender issues in Azeri language still remains
insignificant. There is a considerable need to translate the classics of gender
studies as limited knowledge in English, German, French and other languages creates
narrow opportunities for broad public to access the monographs of the famous
gender scholars and founders of new epistemological and practical approaches.
Information
Resources
Being the
new field of study Gender Research still could not gain the full status in the
stocks of public libraries in Azerbaijan.
For example, the biggest national library named after Mirza Fatali Ahundov does
not have even section on Gender Studies. Several books on gender available to
the reader are classified under the sections on political science, sociology,
peace building, etc. However, some resources on Gender Studies are available in
the University libraries, or at the Gender Research Centers established under
the Universities, for example, in Baku
State University,
Khazar University,
Western University.
The
largest informational recourse on Gender Studies in Azerbaijan
is Azerbaijan Gender Information
Center established in
2002 by the NWP OSI initiative. The Center has large collection of books,
monographs, textbooks on Gender Issues in Azeri, Russian, English, French and
other languages, exceeding in total 1200 items. The books are available for all
people interested in Gender Problematic and can be borrowed for the short time
period. The Center has also collection of the 8 000 press clippings on Gender
or Women's problematic published in all periodicals in Azerbaijan in
Azeri and Russian languages starting from the year 1998.
Another significant component of Center's activities
is development of the first Azerbaijan National Gender portal in three
languages: Azeri, Russian and English of 50 MGB. The Portal is constantly
updated and empowered by the technologies of HTML, SSI, Perl, JavaScript, GSS,
etc. The Portal presents 12 sections such as the projects of the Women's
Network Program, gender problems of the transitional period of the country,
fundraising, participation of women at the decision making level in Azerbaijan,
etc. Portal presents the possible to hold public opinion polls on all three
languages. It also contains information about 262 projects on gender issues
conducted in Azerbaijan, database on 57 Women's NGOs, information about courses
and degrees in Gender studies offered by the universities in the US, Europe,
NIS, etc. It has also electronic form of 7 000 press clippings in Azeri and
Russian languages. The Portal also offers the subscription to its news and
currently the number of the subscribers exceeds 220 people.
Among the
other gender informational resources may be listed the page of Gender Studies
Center on the website of the Western University - www.wu.edu.az. This page describes main
missions and activities of the Center, and is used for announcement of the
events held at the Center.
Two more
sties on gender issues were created by Women's NGOs Creative Women Association
in 1999 - www.cwa.aznet.org and Women's
Society "Azery-Turk" - www.tanzilarustamhanli.com
- in 2004. However, these sites are mostly concentrate on their project
activities and present photo accounts on the work done.
Donor's :
There are no donor organizations operating today in Azerbaijan,
which consider gender studies as a key point of financing. However, number of
the donors allocates the finances for development of gender sensitive
approaches and researches. Each of them set their financing strategies
independently and there is no body or working group that could coordinate their
efforts. Among the key international
donor organizations can be listed OSI-Azerbaijan, UNDP, UNICEF, OXFAM, AED,
ISAR, Eurasia Foundation.
The World Bank is considering doing a country-wide
gender assessment in accordance with its gender mainstreaming policy. As it was
already mentioned earlier the World Bank was among the pioneers donating money
for gender projects. In 2000 the Bank had financed number of projects
stipulating the development of gender curricula.
Gender and Development Unit
at the UNDP focuses on the encouragement of gender issues development: gender
planning, statistics trainings, community gender awareness and women's NGOs
capacity building. The UNDP currently has
started new gender project "2005 National Human Development Report on Gender
Attitudes". With the financial support made available by the Embassy of Norway,
UNDP will broadly address gender issues in Azerbaijan through piloting a
survey on gender attitudes and eventual launching the 2005 NHDR reflecting
findings of the survey, thereby stimulating public debate and triggering policy
action for ensuring greater gender equality in the country.
UNIFEM has a special Caucasus project on "Women for
Conflict Prevention and Peace
Building". Besides
holding the conferences and publishing activities the project has developed the
new course on "Introduction to Conflict Studies. Increasing Women's Role in
Conflict Resolutions", which was described earlier.
The Global
Fund for Women even does not have representative office in Azerbaijan annually allocates two grants for
Women's' NGOs in Azerbaijan.
The majority of the projects are connected with organization of the trainings
and conference sections, however Fund funded two gender research projects. In
2002 NGO "Islam, Democracy and Human Rights" conducted research entitled:
‘Gender Issues in World Religions: Women's Rights in Islam'. In 2004 Women's
Association for Rational Development conducted gender expertise of the national
legislation and had published the book "Women's Rights in Azerbaijan
- Legal Basis" in three languages (Azeri,
Russian and English).
The Open
Society Institute has a Network Women's Program providing funding for various
women's initiatives. One of their main activities is a gender education
projects aiming to integrate gender methodology into secondary and higher
education, such as Empowering Education Project, Development of Gender Studies
in Post-Soviet countries, Establishment and development of Gender Studies
Centers, Research projects, Projects relate to development of higher education
curricula, Publishing of readers, Oral History projects, Education projects on
Women's rights in Islam, gender education schools, funding of the Azerbaijan
Gender Information Center and creation of the first web portal on gender issues
in Azerbaijan. The dynamics of the gender studies funds allocation within
1998-2005 years is 403950$. is
Recommendations on Gender Education Development:
Taking into account the achievements and shortcomings discussed in this
report, I would like to propose following recommendations for the further
development of gender education in Azerbaijan:
-
Increase of gender sensitivity among the teaching staff of the primary
and higher schools through conduction of trainings for the working teaching
staff and introduction of gender studies into the curriculum of the prospective
teachers, in the State Pedagogical University
named after Tusi, Ganja Pedagogical University,
University of Foreign Languages, etc.
-
Introduction of Gender Studies into the curriculums of the Universities
in the regions of Azerbaijan.
-
Gender expertise of the textbooks and course lectures used as teaching
materials in the primary and higher schools.
-
Organization of the competition for the Best lecture course on gender
issues in different disciplines.
-
Publication of the reader or collection of readers on classical feminist
and gender scholars in Azeri language.
-
Organization of the Summer School on Gender Studies in Azerbaijan with participation of
the international experts.
This research was conducted on request of the Network Women's Program Azerbaijan -
OSI. The methodology of this research was qualitative data analyses. The data
was collected from the primary sources such as reports on gender education,
publications of the Gender Centers operating in the Republic, statistical data
books, interviews with active participants of the gender educational projects
in Azerbaijan.
List of references:
Ayfer
Bartu, Halil Dundar, Geoff Howse, Larissa Lemberanskaya, Rasim Ramazanov, Rajab
Sattarov, "Social Assessment. Azerbaijan Education Reform", final report, Baku, 2000.
Dilsuz
Mustafayev, "The report on status of
Gender Education at the institution of higher education in Azerbaijan", report, Baku,
2001.
Fidan Faradjeva, Magiba Aliyeva, "Gender Education in Azerbaijan",
report, Baku,
2004
Judith A. Allen, Sally L. Kitch, "Disciplined
by Disciplines? The Need for an Interdisciplinary research mission in Women's
Studies", Feminist Studies # 24.2, 1998 / Summer.
Larissa Lemberanskaya, Gulnara
Mamedova, "Documentation and Evaluation Project. Open Society Institute - Azerbaijan Women's Program", report, Baku, 2001.
Àçèìîâ À.Á., «Ãåíäåð è Ôèëîñîôèÿ», â ñáîðíèêå «Ãåíäåð:
Èñòîðèÿ, Îáùåñòâî, Êóëüòóðà», Áàêó, 2002.
Áàáàåâ Ç.Ê., «Ëåêöèè: Ãåíäåð è Æóðíàëèñòèêà»,
Áàêó, 2005.
Ì.Ì. Àááàñçàäÿ, Ò.ß. Áÿäÿëîâ, À.Ù. Áàüûðîâ, Î.É. Øåëàãèíîâ, «Ãÿáóë
Èìòàùàíëàðûí íÿòèúÿëÿðèíèí ãåíäåð àñïåêòëÿðè: 2004-úö èë», ÒÃÄÊ -
«Àáèòóðèéåíò», Áàêû, 2004.
Electronic materials of the Azerbaijan
Gender Information
Center's website: www.gender-az.org
[1] Judith A. Allen, Sally L. Kitch, "Disciplined
by Disciplines? The Need for an Interdisciplinary research mission in Women's
Studies", Feminist Studies # 24.2, 1998 / Summer, pp. 276.
[2] Àçèìîâ À.Á., «Ãåíäåð è
Ôèëîñîôèÿ», â ñáîðíèêå «Ãåíäåð: Èñòîðèÿ, Îáùåñòâî, Êóëüòóðà», Áàêó, 2002, ñòð.
142
[3] Àçèìîâ À.Á., «Ãåíäåð è
Ôèëîñîôèÿ», â ñáîðíèêå «Ãåíäåð: Èñòîðèÿ, Îáùåñòâî, Êóëüòóðà», Áàêó, 2002, ñòð.
164
[4] Áàáàåâ Ç.Ê., «Ëåêöèè:
Ãåíäåð è Æóðíàëèñòèêà», Áàêó, 2005, ñòð 81.
[5] Áàáàåâ Ç.Ê., «Ëåêöèè:
Ãåíäåð è Æóðíàëèñòèêà», Áàêó, 2005, ñòð. 92.
Каталог отражает основные направления этой деятельности и знакомит с полученными результатами: разработанные учебные программы и пособия, изданные книги, проведенные школы и семинары, усиление регионального и международного сотрудничества, создание национального гендерного портала, предоставление виртуальных ресурсов, формирование библиотечных ресурсов.