Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD) held two Round Tables on the topic “Role Models: Women Daring to Change”, financially supported by the US Embassy in Azerbaijan. The round tables took place in the Baku office of British Council on the 30 and 31 October and were a part of the project of the same name. (03-NOV-07)
Written by Shahla Ismailova/ HRH Baku on the basis of project materials
The project aims to advance women’s rights by highlighting the women’s role models of Azerbaijan. Within the project framework there is being conducted the research and media campaign on finding out the outstanding women samples, working in various fields, but united by the common feature – significant contribution to the development of Azerbaijan.
Round tables
The round table on the 30-th of October was organized for representatives of women’s and human rights organizations with the goal to define the criteria for selecting the role models as well as to inquire their opinion about who should be presented in the book. The hot discussions on modern role models, particularly in the area of “Politics and Society”, caused big concern and interest in the audience. The final list of the role models to be included into the book will be shortlisted and modified by the Symbolic Experts’ Council, consisting of male experts of various fields; and will be consulted and agreed with the Public Affairs Section of US Embassy in Azerbaijan.
On the 31-st of October, the round table targeted the representatives of mass media outlets. The round table was devoted to the main features of the media campaign to take place. The representatives of mass media outlets expressed their concern on the level of interest among the public towards the worthy role models. The common frustration was that the modern society is more interested in life stories of representatives of show business, rather than stories of achievement and success of ladies from science, art, politics, law, etc. However, at the end of discussions it was accepted that the role of media in developing the public interest to serious and worthy women’s role models is huge. The round table was ended by the encouraging tone – to do the best to pick up the best samples among the women and highlight them in the media. As an encouragement, WARD announced the competition for mass media representatives on the highest active participation in the media campaign. The 3 most active journalists will be awarded by WARD in April 2008, i.e. on the day of presentation of the final output of the project.
Final output
The final output of the project is supposed to be the book “Role Models: Women Daring to Change” in Azerbaijani and English languages. The book will contain the stories of achievements and success of women from past and modern period for the each of the category. The book is divided to 5 chapters, as Politics and Society, Art and Culture, Science and Education, Law and Sport, Architecture and Construction.
The copies of the book will be distributed free of charge to the libraries, resource centers, women’s organizations, human rights institutions, academic institutions, etc. The book is to be published by the April 2008.
