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The Washington Times: â€œAzerbaijanâ€™s First Lady: A role model for Muslim Womenâ€

18 June 2008 08:25 (UTC +04:00)

Tulin Daloglu wrote the article entitled â€œAzerbaijan’s first lady: A role model for Muslim womenâ€. â€œMehriban Aliyeva, the first lady of the Republic of Azerbaijan, graciously welcomed guests to Gulustan Palace in Baku last week for an international forum on "expanding the role of women in cross-cultural dialogue. She looked like Audrey Hepburn as she greeted the attendees. She spoke her native languages, Azeri and Russian, as well as English, showing confidence as she swiftly changed from one to the other. Mrs. Aliyeva is an inspirational role model for her nation - especially women. Addressing the conference, she proudly mentioned several times that in 1918, Azerbaijan became the first country in the East to extend voting rights to women. One could easily imagine that Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, had been influenced by such reform movements in Azerbaijanâ€, said in the article. â€œInterestingly, Muslim women in countries north and south of Turkey, like Azerbaijan and Tunisia, do not place much emphasis on expressing their religiosity through headscarves. While fewer Muslim women wear headscarves in countries like Azerbaijan and Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Iran make it obligatory for women to cover their hairâ€, Daloglu said.