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“Azerbaijan now is a showcase of progressive Muslim women’s rights”, said Gene Ward, member of the Hawaii House International Relations Committee in his article in the local Honolulu Advertiser, APA US bureau reports. The Congressman noted that Azerbaijan hosted 250 diplomats, scholars and elected officials (comprised mostly of Muslim women) from 50 countries in the forum “Expanding the Role of Women in Cross-Cultural Dialogue” on June 10-11 in Baku.
He said first ladies of six countries, as well as representatives of Saudi Arabia, where women concerned that they still couldn’t drive legally, and other countries gathered in Azerbaijan, cross-road of the civilizations, Ward said. The Congressman also noted that women in Morocco still had no voting rights.
“A Moroccan city mayor, the first female elected in that nation, thought that eventually women’s rights would be granted, but the right to vote might take a long time”. He made parallel between Azerbaijan and Hawaii. “Much like Hawaii’s multi-ethnic society, Muslims, Jews, and Christians live in peace in Azerbaijan and actually like each other”.
Gene Ward said: “The First Lady of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva, touted the rights and gains of Muslim women in her country, which in 1918 became the first Muslim country to allow women to vote and was ahead of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement by two years”.
