According to the results of studies conducted within the framework of UN Population Fund project “Fight against gender-based violence in Azerbaijan” the country's media are not predisposed to focus on the concerns related to the violation of women's rights.
Project manager Bakhija Aliyeva informs that the one-month project studies showed that country's media enlighten information about physical violence against women in 59% and television in 46.8% of cases.
"Programs aimed at educating the female population on the protection of their rights are very few, and those that are bear character of show. Journalists pay little attention to writing social issue investigating materials, and primarily social news are developed by the author to the level of sensation, solely in order to generate interest to the information but not to analyze what happened and tackle the issue as a whole," Aliyeva emphasized.
She added that one of the biggest problems on the way of combating violence against women is the lack of refuges (shelters) for abused women.
"As a result, in the majority, such women are forced to return to their parents' house, from where after a short time, on the insistence of parents because of financial insecurity or a fear of losing their children are forced to return to their husband's house,” commented the existing situation Aliyeva.
