Where do female murderers live in Azerbaijan?

Currently, there is violence in every second Azerbaijani family against members of the household with women and children often being victims of the violence, Novella Jafaroglu, Chairman of the Society for Women's Rights named after Dilyara Aliyeva, said. Violence is mostly common for regions of the country, she added.

Head of the Special Division of the Women's Colony No. 4, Justice Major Sudaba Efendieva said, that presently, 333 women serve their sentence in colonies. 15 of them have been convicted for murder of their husbands and boyfriends and two women for inflicting bodily injuries to their husbands. These all are result of prolonged beatings and abuse by their husbands.

"One of the convicts is serving a sentence for killing sister who became pregnant as a result of extramarital affair, and another - for the murder of 40-day granddaughter, born as a result of extramarital affair, too," Efendieva noted.

These facts can be regarded as domestic violence. Interestingly, most women who kill their husbands live in southern Masalli and Astara regions, which points to the urgency of problem of domestic violence in this part of the country.

Meanwhile, the Law on Domestic Violence will start functioning in October. However, human rights activist Jafaroglu believes that this law will not have any effect, since there is no mechanism of work.

"We will involve relevant agencies of Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor General's Office and municipalitiesto to our project We believe that not only Interior Ministry bodies, but also municipalities should register problematic families,” she added.

During trainings on law on domestic violence for police officers, some human rights activists suggested to apply a month of arrest for men who beat their wives.

"At first, men should be warned. But if beatings repeat, they should be punished according to the law," Jafaroglu says.

The human rights activist says police should have special groups that would monitor the situation in troubled families. Not only beatings by husband, but also by parents should be taken into account in this case. We note that men also often face domestic violence just like women.

Sources in the Azerbaijan Interior Ministry report, that every year Azerbaijan's law enforcement agencies register hundreds of troubled families in major cities. The number of troubled families in the country has increased since 2000 and 500-600 such families are registered every year on average, the source said.

However, Interior Ministry’s press office said not ministry, but local bodies keep official statistics on registration of problematic families.


/Vesti.az/