Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Social Sciences in the 21st Century
Year: 2023
DOI:
[PDF]
The Evolution of the Image of Azerbaijani Feminists Movement
Abuhayat Jafarova
ABSTRACT:
The article describes the performative protests of feminists in Azerbaijan and analyzes the experience of the Azerbaijani feminist movement in organizing and using protest actions in means of promoting social change.
Much attention is given to the confrontation that feminists face due to their political activism. The research is based on in-depth interviews with leaders and members of the 2019 feminist movement, as well as analysis of media reports and observation. The results of the research make me assume that due to radical and provocative slogans the feminists’ movement became known in public sphere, but on the other side lost the tolerance of conventional Azerbaijanis.
The article gives a detailed analysis of how the attitude of the public changed towards this group of protesters in the period of 2019-2022, as well as it describes the changes in the police strategy in confrontation with feminists from aggressive suppression to partial tolerance. I discussed the possible reasons of such drastic changes. In conclusion, I underline the importance of media in building the image if both confronted sides.
keywords: feminism, protest, social movement, mentality, state