more thoughts about life here..

Azerbaijan celebrated its biggest holiday season, Novruz, last Thurs and Fri.  Everyone was given the entire week off work so I took the opportunity to go to “the regions” of Ganje and Sheki in the west and northwest respectively.  My trip probably deserves a blog entry filled with pictures but limitation of internet speed here leaves me no choice but to post a dull, wordy entry, which no one will read.  So here goes the rambling..

I realized that the more I travel outside the capital city of Baku, the city I considered conservative is extremely liberal in comparison to the rest of the country. 

Let’s consider this little girl from a small city:

• Chances are that her parents considered aborting her—25% of females are aborted before they are born
• Chances are that her brother in the picture will demand for tea at home even though she’s busy cooking and cleaning while he bums around
• Chances are that she will be smarter than her brother because she almost never leaves the home so she will have more time to study while her brother goes out to the internet café, play football or chai house
• Chances are that when she does leave home, she never goes alone but always accompanied by her mom or some girlfriends
  …but she probably wouldn’t mind staying home because there are few places in town where it is acceptable for girls to visit.  Those chai houses at the park are for men only no matter how nice the weather
• Chances are that when she grows into a beautiful young woman, she considers herself muslim but she will never hide her long dark hair under a hijab (headscarf), instead she will don fashionable tops, tight jeans, and heels as do most girls her age.  Young men will accept their right to gawk at her as she walks by.
• Chances are that she will marry her first cousin by the age of 25, after which she’d have missed her window of opportunity for marriage
• Chances are that she will never learn to drive because women don’t drive
• Chances are that she will flash a row of gold capped teeth when she smiles by her 30s
  …but in a photo you’ll never see her smile
• Chances are she will have a couple kids (boys slightly preferred) and lose her slim figure along the way
• Chances are that she will consider herself happy in spite of all this

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