Ayna Sultanova was a leading Azeri Bolshevik from 1918 who would become Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Republic in 1937. Shortly after, she, along with her husband and almost the entire Azeri Communist leadership, were executed in the Purges. Here, she talks of taking off the ‘chadra,’ the veil, in Azerbaijan in the 1920s.

‘Women of Soviet Azerbaijan’ by Ayna Sultanova from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 9 No. 16. March 29, 1929.

Azerbaijan is one of the Trans-Caucasian republics. Before the October revolution its women were profoundly under the influence of their religion. They wore the chadra, veiling the face; they had no right to remain in the same room with men, were not allowed to eat at the same table as their husbands. A wife had to keep silent, and did not become acquainted with her husband till after the wedding. Even now the chadra has not been entirely laid aside. The Soviet Union laws have given the women the same rights as the men but tradition exercises an enormous pressure, and up to the present there has been much difficulty in overcoming it.

The Communist Party, anxious for the conclusive social strengthening of woman’s position, is carrying on an intensive agitation among the working masses for the abandonment of the chadra. The newspapers write about it; it is discussed at meetings. In special women’s meetings, convened for the purpose, women declare: “We are ready to lay aside the chadra, but we fear our environment.” This expresses the fanaticism still existing, the fear of the despotism of the man. But the question of laying aside the chadra is not only bound up with of the women’s way of life, but involves the tasks of production. Industry is growing, new factories are springing up, fresh labour resources are required for these factories, and the women can and will be given their place in the process of production. The question of laying aside the chadra is no longer regarded as a general question of the cultural revolution. but as a question deeply concerning the economic strengthening of woman.

The Turkish woman cannot work in the factory, for at the same work-bench there are men; she must take off her chadra if she is to work, but the ancient laws of the Moslem religion forbid her to do this. The training of women as skilled workers again depends on this same factor; if she does not lay aside the chadra, she cannot attend school, cannot remedy her illiteracy, cannot improve her qualifications. The women’s departments of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union are carrying on energetic agitation in this direction; they began with women’s meetings, and advanced gradually to public meetings and to appeals to the more culturally advanced strata of the population, calling upon these to free their women from the chadra.

The chadra was abandoned first of all by the Party members and Young Communists, then by the wives of the members of the Communist Party and Young Communist League, and by the women teachers. In some cases, however, backward Party members or Young Communists have not been able to grasp the necessity of their wives’, sisters’, and daughters’ abandonment of the chadra, and do nothing to promote this. The women’s departments have raised a protest in the press, making it clear to these comrades that this concession to ancient prejudice is utterly wrong, and that membership of the Communist Party is incompatible with failure to comprehend the necessity of the social strengthening of woman.

Much progress has now been made in this direction, and it is to be expected that in the course of about six months the majority of the women of Azerbaijan will have laid side the chadra.

Other causes of social subjection bequeathed to the women of Azerbaijan from olden days are polygamy, corporal punishment, and early marriage. All these are now prohibited by the Soviet law, but this does not prevent the law from being broken by a variety of subterfuges. Polygamy, as prescribed by the law of Mohammed, is still carried on in a concealed form. For the Turkish women the greatest source of unhappiness is early marriage. At the age of seven or ten they become the property of their betrothed. The man has the right not to send the girl to school, and to marry her whilst she is still a child, which often leads to physical ruin and utter loss of capacity to work. The Party is fighting energetically against these last remnants of the old life of Azerbaijan, and those who violate the Soviet laws are called to account before the Soviet tribunals.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. Inprecorr is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

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