"THE FAULT" OR GIRL?

The problem of selective abortion remains topical in Azerbaijan. This issue is so pressing that it is to be included in the draft law "On family planning and reproductive health". Nevertheless, no awareness work is being carried out among the population and the society's traditions keep pushing mothers to get rid of children of undesirable sex.

 Illegal and immoral 

Although Azerbaijan is a secular country, today women are often left with no choice when a child is conceived. Because if the child's sex is undesirable for the family (of course this more commonly applies to girls), then either the woman herself decides to be rid of it, or she is forced to do so under the family's pressure. Undoubtedly, this goes against religious guidelines. As theologian Anar Alizada notes, all monotheistic religions, including Islam, see abortions as something unequivocally negative. "But at the same time, Alizada notes, Muslim theologians on the basis of hadith from Buhari say that an abortion is allowed only before the fetus is 40 days old, because the "spirit" enters it after the 40th day". The theologians are also unequivocal with regard to selective abortions. Alizada said that in the pre-Islamic period in Arab society girls were killed, but Islamic religious figures always speak against this. There is an Aayah in the Quran that criticizes the parents who get rid of the embryo on the basis of its gender. Hence, it is wrong to cite a Muslim mentality as dictating the priority of the birth of boys in families.

Meanwhile, the legislative basis is impressive in terms of its comprehensiveness. If the draft law is endorsed, then it will also apply to a number of issues related to abortions. For example, the deputy chair of the parliamentary committee for social policies, Musa Quliyev, said that "sanctions such as dismissals from jobs, fines and criminal prosecution will be applied against doctors who carry out selective abortions. Because if administrative and criminal sanctions are not applied, then this matter would be impossible to solve just by raising people's awareness or measures alone". The legislation also concerns illegal abortions carried out by the people who lack tertiary medical education. According to the new amendments to the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, people who carry out an illegal abortion will have to do community work between 30 and 400 hours, or will be issued corrective work orders for up to a year.

But there is no question of completely banning abortions. The main reason for a complete ban on abortions can be demographic problems in the country, which we are fortunate not to have, and religious causes, which do not apply to us because Azerbaijan is a secular country. As a gynaecologist in a Baku clinic said, often young women ask her to make an abortion because they are expecting a girl. Most often this happens due to the pressure such women experience in the families. "Sometimes husbands and mothers-in-law put pressure on women; they get pregnant after a recent birth because they are not left alone with demands to give birth to a boy as a heir", the gynaecologist said.

Social and gender

In the woman crisis centre the talk is about pressure that women are subjected too. "In fact, cases of direct and ruthless pressure with demands to get rid of a female foetus are rare. More often this is about the latent constant psychological pressure. Women also feel uncomfortable themselves unless they bring a heir to the family. She is always expected to give birth to a boy who will succeed his family's status. Otherwise, women who don't have boys will be treated badly or reminded frequently of "their fault", they say in the centre. All of this stems from the stereotypes formed in the society: those who give birth to boys are always treated with more respect in Azerbaijani families and feel more confident. It is not often that women are capable of opposing the family's wish and so they voluntarily agree to selective abortions.

The reasons for this lie in the patriarchal foundations remaining in many families when the role of the woman is determined by her being a wife and mother. But the woman is capable of combining all these roles if such an opportunity is given to her. Various models are acceptable for different families, including those where women take an active part in social life. But the decisive role in this belongs to the man, to whether he will support his wife in her endeavours or will suppress her. Thus, the problem of "the girl or the boy" turns from a family one to a social and gender one. It is difficult to assess how effective the measures taken and the legislation adopted by the state because the number of underground abortions in unacceptable conditions may increase. Consequently, the maternal mortality may rise.

International experts also express concern that cases of infanticide may become more frequent. Prohibiting the women from having an abortion is impossible, no matter what the legislation says, because it would be a direct violation of her rights

More effective would be conducting work among the population. "For instance, in the US abortion opponents released a video that showed how an embryo extracted from mother's body behaves, how it feels almost complete human emotions and fear," people said in the centre. In addition, educational efforts are needed to talk about the irreparable damage done to the women's organism by the abortions. Equally onerous is the psychological burden from this action. A woman can enter a deep depression and have neuroses, disorders of the nervous system. Along with this, women could talk in families about how good it is to have a girl. Incidentally, statistics show that fathers like daughters more and are more attached to them.

And finally, the question of physiology, known from the school textbook of anatomy. As you know, in the nuclei of human cells are chromosomes - carriers of genetic information. Each person has their 46 - 23 pairs, and 22 of them are the same for both sexes, with only one chromosome that is responsible for the sex being different: female XX and male XY. At the moment of fertilization the egg and sperm contain only one sex chromosome, "the fair sex" - always X and the "strong" - X or Y. If the egg with X meets the sperm with X, after 9 months a girl will be born. If the woman's cell is fertilized by sperm Y, a boy is born. Thus, it is clear that the sex of the child entirely  depends on men. It is a shame that many who blame their wives and daughter-in-laws of the "fault" are unaware of this.

According to the statistics, there are always more boys born than girls (nature's laws ensure this because the mortality of boys in the first years of life is higher than for girls, by about 30 per cent). Some reports say that 60m fewer girls were not born in the world as a result of selective abortions. This is a significant figure, especially if we consider that each girl is a future mother. Thus, unless the situation changes we can encounter a serious demographic imbalance.