Family structure of Azerbaijan

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The Azerbaijani people have rich family traditions. These family traditions have rich and multifaceted features such as loyalty, mutual love, honesty, respect for the elder people and parents and tolerance. Every person in the family must adhere to his or her personal status, rules, relationships and principles like in the mutual relations in the society.

Family structure of Azerbaijan[]

The Azerbaijani people have a unique family type. In general, the Azerbaijani family type is a unique one not only in the West, but also in the East. Because, Azerbaijan has tradition as a parent-child relationship, to respect for adults and it has preserved fundamental national values from ancient times to today. 75-80 percent of young people pay attention to parental advice and respect them. In some countries, after a child reaches certain age, parents force them to live independently. This situation affects the family relationship. Because family is such an institution that commitment should not be broken. Azerbaijan has very few such cases. In most cases, children live with their parents until they marry. There are few people, who live with their parents after the marriage.^[1]

Each family member must fulfill owned responsibilities, and should do everything for family, respect and care for family members, share the family's joy and sorrow, be loyal to the common tradition and rules available in their region. The society is developing due to existence of true families.^[2]

Until the beginning of the 20th century, a big family was very common. These family type of kinship ties are strong, family leadership belongs to the man or elderly man, and he carries the responsibility of his family. The eldest son receives the greatest share of the heritage, and after the death of his father he becomes the head of the family.^[2]

Before the 20th century, the Azerbaijani family historically consisted of two forms in general terms. The first was the broad patriarchal families in which the representatives of the two or three generations lived in the 19th century together with their father, mother and married boys. The second one was the small families which consist of husbands and wives and children.^[2]

It is possible to find examples of large family structure in Azerbaijan in the late 19th century and early 20th century, or even in the early years of the Soviet era. In such families, orphan children would grow up under the influence of their uncle. The real estate was shared within the family according to the Shari'a law and principles. The share of inheritance for male children was more than the inheritance for female children.^[2]

Modern family model of Azerbaijan[]

Azerbaijani families can be divided into two groups according to the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries:

1) Family living in districts or villages, suitable for national family mentality;

2) Families living in bigger cities, e.g. in Baku or in different countries of the world.

Earlier, there were many families with 5-10 members. Moreover, families were staying close to relatives such as aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother etc. Now, little of this is left. As of the end of the 1980s, only a very small family type with three children began to increase. Now, most of children do not have relatives such as aunt, uncle, and cousin. For example, an honorary title "mother heroine" in the 1990s awarded for looking after and raising a large family with 10 children, was abolished in 1990s after the collapse of SSRI. After the gaining independence mothers with four or five children were regarded as "mother heroine". But nowadays, Azerbaijan are consist of majority of families with 2 and 3 children.^[3]

Woman in Azerbaijani family[]

The Azerbaijani woman has a special place in protecting the integrity of the family. Everyone is obliged to the mother because of their life and their existence. The word "mother" is holy, that is why native land is called motherland, where human was born and grew up. Mother is the backbone of the family. The happiness of every family depends primarily on the role of the mother and her activities.

The status of women in Azerbaijan has undergone several major changes over the past few millennia. Nevertheless, women in Azerbaijan provided many solutions to issues related to different periods of the history of country. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic created in 1918, was providing gender equality rights to people living in the country. Thus, Azerbaijan became the first country in the East to accept the women rights to vote.

A number of events are being held in Azerbaijan on the occasion of International Family Day, which is celebrated worldwide and aimed at directing people's attention to family problems on 15 May every year.^[4] The selection of exemplary families at the "Family Holiday", organized by the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, as well as holding ceremonies in different regions of the country has become a good tradition.^[5]

At present there are 1 million 831 thousand 100 families in the country. Over the past five years, the poverty rate has been reduced from 49 to 13 percent and 766,000 new vacant jobs have been created. Particular attention is paid to the creation of conditions for the comprehensive development of the family and the solution of their various problems.

Marriage age[]

The Family Code, such as the allowed marriage age for girls was raised from 17 to 18 in 2011. According to the new rules, forcing a woman to marry will be faced with either fine of two to three thousand manats or arrest up to two years. If the same situation committed against someone under 18, the amount of fine will be from three to four thousand manats and the arrest period is up to four years.^[6]

Laws[]

Azerbaijan joined the International Conventions on the strengthening of family, protection of women and children's rights, and accepted the relevant laws in Republic in the 1990s. In addition, Azerbaijan joined International Labor Organization (ILO) Recommendation #156 on "Equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women workers - employees with family responsibilities",[7] the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,[8] “on the rights of the child”, “on the protection of children related to inter-country adoption and cooperation”,[9]  "on Minimum age for Employment of Children in Agriculture", " on prohibition of child labor worst forms and urgent measures to eliminate child labor" and other conventions.[10]

The laws on "Family agriculture", "Children's rights", "Prevention of limitations on disabled children and their health, Rehabilitation and social protection of disabled children", "Social protection of children who lost their parents", "Nutrition of infants and young children",^[11] "About compulsory dispensary for children”,^[12] The "Transnational organized crime" of UN",^[13] Convention on the prevention, suppression and punishment of human trafficking, especially women and children",^[14] "on Approval of the protocols against illegal crossing of migrants by land, sea and air ", “about the citizenship of a married woman ", "on regulation of human rights and freedom in the Azerbaijani Republic, " About social services for the elderly", "on the legal status of children born out of wedlock "," On social protection of families with children "and others have been accepted.^[15][16]

The Code of Azerbaijani family[]

This Code defines standards governing the establishment and strengthening of family relationships, the principles of breaking relationships, the rights and duties of family members, the responsibilities of public authorities in this field, as well as the rules of state registration of civil status acts, in accordance with the fundamental human and civil rights and freedom envisaged in the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan.^[17]

State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of Azerbaijan Republic[]

The State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs was created by the Decree of the Azerbaijani President on February 6, 2006 and Hijran Huseynova^[18] was appointed Chairman of the Committee by the Decree of the President dated February 6, 2006.

The State Committee on Women's Issues was established by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated January 14, 1998.^[19]

The Committee has been functioning to solve the existing problems in this period. The State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been established with the Decree of the Azerbaijani President dated 6 February 2006. The State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of the Azerbaijan is the central executive body that carries out state policy and regulation in the field of work with family, women and children's probs.

The duties of the Committee are consisting of the comprehensive development and consolidation of the family institution, protection of family values, minimizing its problems, increasing the role of the family in society and improving its welfare. During the three years of activity, the committee has achieved a number of successes. In general, no government agency has been dealing with family problems in a centralized way in the country so far. First of all, a general database of families living in Azerbaijan was created, survey questionnaires were conducted in all cities and regions of the republic.^[20]

See also[]

• Woman in Azerbaijan
• Culture of Azerbaijan

References[]