AZE.US
Azerbaijan Democratic Party chairman Sardar Jalaloglu has sparked controversy after using a comparison from the animal world while speaking about women’s appearance and social attitudes toward beauty in Azerbaijan.
In an interview with the program “Künc-Bucaq,” Jalaloglu said women in Azerbaijan place too much emphasis on physical appearance and suggested that society values them more for how they look than for their intellect, culture or worldview.
“You will not see a single dressed-up woman in America,” Jalaloglu said.
“If you look at how women dress there, they dress simply, almost like men: wide trousers, dark clothes.
But in Azerbaijan, when a woman leaves home, it looks as if she is going to a bar or a restaurant.”
He added: “At home she does not take care of herself, but when she goes outside she wears perfume, makeup and dresses up. Then the question arises: who are you doing this for?”
Jalaloglu said “moral beauty” should come first, but argued that in Azerbaijan everything is built around physical beauty.
“Look at the animal world. There is no concept of beauty there. They choose a female that can produce healthy offspring,” he said.
The party chairman also claimed that men often treat women not according to what he called “feminine qualities,” but as sexual objects.
“A woman should not present herself as a sexual object so that she is not treated that way,” Jalaloglu said.
He said Azerbaijani society often judges women by appearance rather than by intellect, culture or worldview. As a result, he argued, many women focus on changing their physical appearance instead of “working on themselves.”
“This is a separate problem,” Jalaloglu said.
AZE.US