AZE.US
In Azerbaijan, alimony obligations are often associated with men, but the law does not distinguish between fathers and mothers. If a child is in the care of the father, alimony may legally be collected from the mother.
As Vesti Baku reports, lawyer Rashad Aliyev said in a comment to Demokrat.az that Azerbaijani legislation treats both parents equally in matters of child support.
“If a child remains in the care of one parent, the other parent is obliged to contribute financially to the child’s maintenance. In this sense, if the child is in the father’s care, the mother’s obligation to pay alimony is fully legal. The Family Code does not make a gender distinction between parents. The main principle is the protection of the child’s interests,” Aliyev said.
According to him, once a court decision enters into force, alimony payments become mandatory. If the payments are not made voluntarily, the case is sent to enforcement officers.
The enforcement authorities may then take measures such as deductions from the debtor’s salary, freezing bank accounts, or identifying available property. The fact that the debtor is a woman does not exempt her from this responsibility.
Aliyev noted that such cases can still create social and psychological difficulties in practice. In Azerbaijani society, alimony is traditionally viewed as an obligation usually paid by men, and decisions requiring women to pay child support may sometimes lead to emotional public discussions.
In some cases, he said, the mother may see the child’s stay with the father as temporary and therefore may not take the alimony obligation seriously. This can delay the enforcement process.
Another challenge is the lack of official income. Some women work unofficially or do not have an employment contract, which makes collecting alimony more difficult. In such cases, enforcement authorities must examine the person’s property and other possible sources of income.
Aliyev added that deliberate evasion of alimony payments may create legal liability.
The lawyer stressed that if the child is actually living with the father and the father bears the main financial burden, collecting alimony from the mother is both legal and justified. This approach, he said, serves the equal distribution of parental responsibility and the protection of the child’s social welfare.
AZE.US