Yagmur accuses the authorities of persecuting women activists

Baku/17.05.21/Turan: At a briefing held on May 12 by the international organization Amnesty International, it was noted that the Azerbaijani authorities should immediately put an end to the campaign of gender-based violence against women human rights defenders and activists, study the situation and bring to justice those who are both private and public officials, as well as members of the security forces.

According to the briefing, they are blackmailed by hacking accounts on social networks and publishing their personal correspondence, personal data and materials of a sexual nature, and over the past two years there have been at least 15 such cases, and the number of such cases is growing.

“If an organization like Amnesty International says that women who actively participate in social and political processes in Azerbaijan are being repressed, then how can this be denied?”  said a public activist and writer Zumrud Yagmur to  Turan's “Difficult Question” program, noting that raids against women activists are taking place in Azerbaijan.

Yagmur says that the attitude towards women participating in social and political processes in Azerbaijan is in itself ambiguous.

She emphasized that recently another difficult point has been added to this thesis, which is that this category of women is subjected to blackmail, interference in their personal life occurs, publications about their personal lives are merged, which dooms them to suffering.

Meanwhile, Yagmur said that some activists are faced with such cases. According to him, despite the authorities say that there is no hand in these events, this does not seem convincing.

The author believes that such campaigns of total surveillance, persecution, exposure are useful only for the authorities, and such actions violate national moral values. In her opinion, in general, power makes a “vampire” out of the image of a free woman.

“The authorities do not want clarity on this issue and a solution to this problem in order to give an opportunity for building a strong society. Because running a strong society is not easy. Therefore, she prefers to prevent this process," she says.

Yagmur believes that society should not be afraid of the image of a free woman. because who is a free man is a free woman. -05B-