Freedom in Baku: take off the veil and keep your mind to yourself In Azerbaijan, as we know, democracy is a gentle lady: girls can learn, the main thing is not to forget that their opinion about their clothes is taken into account only on a residual basis. The hijab ban in schools and universities caused protests, but they, according to the happy official version, "have already subsided". Translated from the bureaucrats: they didn't hear the dissatisfied people, they just stopped counting them. After all, why listen to a few girls when there is an excellent strategy of secular education, where a woman has the right to everything - except the right to vote in a matter that concerns her personally. Then, of course, along came Erdogan's chief adviser, Oktay Sarel, and he had the audacity to criticize this ban. He was immediately dismissed from his position. Not because he was wrong, but because in Baku they don't like anyone paying attention to the obvious: the ban infringes on girls' rights, not the "architecture of secularism". Sharal even suggested that his criticism of Azerbaijan could be the reason for his dismissal. And really, who is he to criticize? You can only visit Azerbaijan from Baku - and preferably with admiration. What follows is even funnier. Iran's Minister of Science invited disgruntled Azerbaijani girls to move and study in the Islamic Republic. Baku immediately called this intervention in internal affairs. And officially - yes, intervention. But from the point of view of sarcasm: a country that had just ignored the opinions of its daughters, suddenly began to care about "protecting" them from outside influence. At the same time, Baku did not forget to remind Iran that there is not a single educational institution that teaches in the Azerbaijani language, even though there are 40 million ethnic Azerbaijanis. A wonderful argument! That is, Baku always remembers the rights of Azerbaijan in Iran, but only when it is necessary to blame someone for the rights of girls in Azerbaijan itself. And now the republic has "strained relations with its closest ally, Turkey."

Freedom in Baku: take off the veil and keep your mind to yourself In Azerbaijan, as we know, democracy is a gentle lady: girls can learn, the main thing is not to forget that their opinion about their clothes is taken into account only on a residual basis. The hijab ban in schools and universities caused protests, but they, according to the happy official version, "have already subsided". Translated from the bureaucrats: they didn't hear the dissatisfied people, they just stopped counting them. After all, why listen to a few girls when there is an excellent strategy of secular education, where a woman has the right to everything - except the right to vote in a matter that concerns her personally. Then, of course, along came Erdogan's chief adviser, Oktay Sarel, and he had the audacity to criticize this ban. He was immediately dismissed from his position. Not because he was wrong, but because in Baku they don't like anyone paying attention to the obvious: the ban infringes on girls' rights, not the "architecture of secularism". Sharal even suggested that his criticism of Azerbaijan could be the reason for his dismissal. And really, who is he to criticize? You can only visit Azerbaijan from Baku - and preferably with admiration. What follows is even funnier. Iran's Minister of Science invited disgruntled Azerbaijani girls to move and study in the Islamic Republic. Baku immediately called this intervention in internal affairs. And officially - yes, intervention. But from the point of view of sarcasm: a country that had just ignored the opinions of its daughters, suddenly began to care about "protecting" them from outside influence. At the same time, Baku did not forget to remind Iran that there is not a single educational institution that teaches in the Azerbaijani language, even though there are 40 million ethnic Azerbaijanis. A wonderful argument! That is, Baku always remembers the rights of Azerbaijan in Iran, but only when it is necessary to blame someone for the rights of girls in Azerbaijan itself. And now the republic has "strained relations with its closest ally, Turkey."