On December 13, the presentation of the report of research on gender-based discrimination and hate speech in the media, conducted for the first time in Azerbaijan, was held.
 

The fundamental research titled “Gender-based Hate Speech and Discriminatory Narratives Against Women in Azerbaijani Media”, carried out by the “Gender & Media Watch” (GMW) initiative in partnership with Kitabıstan and Tekst Media, includes both media monitoring and a public opinion survey.

The event brought together representatives of the diplomatic corps as well as members of the wider public. Giving an opening speech, the Head of Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Marijana Kujundzic, emphasized in her opening remarks that discussing this issue today is extremely important, as it gives the topic public significance and creates space for open public debate:

“I read the report, I cross-read the report and I realized that the things that are happening in the media, including social media, are the same everywhere. It is not only in Azerbaijan, it is everywhere. But the group that is particularly targeted is young women, it is women in media or women politicians. But every woman or girl is a potential target of hate speech. So, at least from what I see, it is never discussed what men dress, for example, never. But women, when they dress, in the media, there is always some kind of discussion.”

Ambassador Kujundzic added that gender inequality is even more blatant in media content, with women being insufficiently represented both quantitatively and qualitatively:

“On the way to address the issue, the first step is to acknowledge the existence of the problem, and that is actually what we are going to do today and what Malak is doing as a part of her project.”
 

Following this, the founder of the “Gender & Media Watch” initiative, Malak Hajiyeva, addressed the audience and thanked the participants for attending the event organized at the conclusion of the 16 Days of Activism campaign against gender-based violence, thereby demonstrating solidarity on this issue. She presented the results achieved by the GMW initiative in a short period of time, shared statistics from the monitoring and public opinion survey, and outlined the analyses conducted on the basis of these figures. M. Hajiyeva noted that the marked increase in gender-based discrimination and hate speech in Azerbaijani media over the past year indicates that the problem has taken on a systematic character:
 

“To address the problem, we decided to monitor facts on a unified platform and present our analyses to the public. The activities we launched in June garnered more than 4 million views and nearly 250,000 reactions on social media in a short time. This shows how much society needs such a platform.”
 

M. Hajiyeva emphasized that GMW not only shares monitoring results on social media but also submits them to official bodies. According to her, appeals made to the Audiovisual Council have already begun to yield tangible results. She added that one of GMW’s key distinctions is demonstrating how legal action can be pursued against gender stereotypes and calls for violence against women. She then presented statistics from public opinion surveys and some of the findings from media monitoring, including discriminatory gender-based narratives, hate speech, and the promotion of discrimination, along with selected analyses.
 

Kamran Hasanli, Head of the GMW monitoring group and founder of Tekst Media, spoke about the mechanisms through which the media influences society. He noted that one of the main problems is the misconstruction of the media agenda:
 

“Our monitoring has shown that reactions to femicides focus not on questioning the crime, but on questioning the victim. People discuss why the woman was killed or why she was subjected to violence, which ultimately leads to victim-blaming. One of the main contributors to this is the media. When the media presents gender-based violence as a third-tier news item, society also treats it as a third-tier issue.”
 

K. Hasanli stressed that by inviting unprofessional “experts” to broadcasts, who claim that “women can both be beaten and be loved”, the media effectively manufactures consent for gender-based violence.

In the closing remarks, the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Azerbaijan, Kestutis Vaskelevicius, thanked the organizers for the event and stated that raising awareness and activism does make a difference for building an inclusive and happy society.

At the end of the event, Malak Hajiyeva and Kamran Hasanli answered questions from participants, and the discussion continued in an interactive format.

15.12.2025