{"id":91621,"date":"2011-05-02T13:37:02","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T08:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=91621"},"modified":"2011-05-02T13:39:25","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T08:39:25","slug":"if-women-doing-mens-work-its-ok-but-if-a-man-does-some-kind-of-womens-job-its-a-shame-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/05\/02\/if-women-doing-mens-work-its-ok-but-if-a-man-does-some-kind-of-womens-job-its-a-shame-interview.html","title":{"rendered":"If Women Doing ‘Men’s Work,’ It’s OK, But if a Man Does Some Kind of ‘Women’s Job,’ It’s a Shame: Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether in conflict, in peace or in the current state of no-peace, no-war, women\u2019s voices on both sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border are rarely heard in mainstream discourse. Women often feel like they don\u2019t have a voice whether it be in their personal and family lives, in their community or in the affairs of their country, so reads the introduction to a new trilingual (Armenian, Azeri, English) blog of a cross-border project titled Armenian and Azerbaijani Women\u2019s Narratives Project<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the past few months, two teams of journalists, writers and bloggers in both Armenia and Azerbaijan interviewed a handful of women of different ages and backgrounds, both in the capitals of Yerevan and Baku and in the regions as part of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Women\u2019s Narratives Project<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (sponsored by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation<\/strong><\/span><\/a> as part of its \u201cUnbiased E-Media Coverage in Armenia and Azerbaijan<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u201d program). We asked them about their lives, their hopes and wishes for themselves, their families and their countries. Epress.am will feature the interviews \u2014 one a week, published every Monday. This is the second interview in the series.<\/p>\n

To read the interview in full, visit the blog by clicking here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. No photographs were taken of the interviewees to create a more comfortable interview environment and to respect their privacy.<\/p>\n

Here is one interview from the project with Shahla Sultanova originally from the region of Zagatala in Azerbaijan:<\/p>\n

I grew up in an Avarian community. We didn\u2019t grow up as Azerbaijani girls, with lots of limitations. Of course, we had some, but not things like wearing long skirts or not. It\u2019s funny but my parents didn\u2019t care what kind of make-up I have, and where I go and who my friends are. We didn\u2019t talk a lot about marriage and at what age I should be married. Or as a girl you should do this or that. My mom is Azerbaijani, she is from a different region. She tried to do this, but it didn\u2019t work because majority of children there are not like she wanted us to be.<\/p>\n

I guess, it comes from my community. We grew up like boys and my parents cared about what I wanted. We grew up like boys and we grew in the mountains where you cannot be very ladylike, you know \u201ckhanim\u201d kind of girl, like Azerbaijanis say.<\/p>\n

On Education, Moving to the US and Doing ‘Men’s Work’<\/strong><\/p>\n

I moved to the United States when I was 28. I thought that it was a problem and that I should change that but in the United States I understood that I was just individualistic and could not live in a communal society. That is shy I did not feel like a minority in the United States. I felt that way more in Azerbaijan, even if I grew up here and I speak the language and even if my mom is Azerbaijani.<\/p>\n

I entered the department of English philology at Ganja State University. I cried a lot because I didn\u2019t want to move to Ganja, I wanted to move to Baku but I didn\u2019t have a high enough score, I guess. That was a free education, the only thing that my government gave me and it was worthless, I didn\u2019t learn anything. But I was very active outside of university, I spent a lot of time with youth organizations and some centers.<\/p>\n

There I learned that there was a chance for me to go to the United States and get education. I spent lots of time on investigating how I could get to the US, what I can study. I applied several times and failed. Again it\u2019s hard to understand why you fail.<\/p>\n

But then I studied in Georgia, at GIPA, it was a scholarship, again it was a free education. It was a very good education, I am happy to be a part of it. It was practical journalism, and I always wanted more. After GIPA where I studied journalism, I went to the US and it was the greatest experience in my life.<\/p>\n

At home, my sister and I did a lot of men\u2019s work. But my dad would never cook and if he is home, we should bring him tea. He considers it to be woman\u2019s job. He cannot even take food from the kitchen, we should serve it to him.<\/p>\n

I do have friends, I am a lucky person, but they cannot always understand me, especially after I came back from the US. They say that my image, my taste was \u201cspoiled\u201d because I don\u2019t care about\u2026 Azeri women care about themselves a lot \u2013 like everything, the polished nails, very nice clothes. I don\u2019t care about this anymore. They complain and say that United States spoiled me.<\/p>\n

On the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n

I disliked Armenians for a while but I think it has changed since that time. Now I don\u2019t care \u2013 I had Armenian friends in Georgia and in the United States. I don\u2019t hate them at all, and I don\u2019t see any difference, and I don\u2019t think they are guilty. It\u2019s a political conflict.<\/p>\n

I got more mature and I could think beyond Azerbaijan. May be because I am an ethnic minority too. In my region, a few people sometimes say, \u201cWe should be independent, we should not be a part of Azerbaijan.\u201d I can understand this but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s smart to think like that or to have that desire. If we are ethnic minorities it does not mean that we should be separated. We still can be a part of Azerbaijan and I guess Azerbaijan is very, very tolerant to ethnic minorities. I can openly say that I am Avar. It\u2019s different in Georgia where it\u2019s difficult to say I am Chechen or Swan. I saw my classmates\u2019 reaction, they have some minorities and people don\u2019t talk about it. I was actually respected.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to talk about Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and Karabakh. I think this conflict will not be solved until the media stop attacking each other, until ANS won\u2019t stop doing things like starting the news from saying that the conflict is continuing.<\/p>\n

People need to get educated. The more educated you are the less nationalistic you are, the less you will be in a conflict. If people don\u2019t have a chance for good education, of course there will be all that nationalism. The more they will stay nationalistic, the more the conflict will stay frozen and it\u2019s not going to be resolved.<\/p>\n

They should understand that Armenians did bad things to Azerbaijan but Azerbaijanis also did some kind of bad things to Armenians. They shouldn\u2019t hate people because of their ethnicity, they shouldn\u2019t generalize. There are lots of cases in history \u2013 French and English had conflicts over hundreds of years but they live in peace now. People should know it. Conflict resolution is not only among politicians, it should be among people too. Even if they say that the borders are open now, if people don\u2019t accept it, it\u2019s a new step toward new conflict. I don\u2019t think they educate people about other conflicts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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