Ali Bayramov Club

The Ali Bayramov Club was the first club for women in Baku and holds an important place in the history of Azeri women’s emancipation. The Club offered a variety of vocational skills and training to women, in additional to cultural and leisure activities. Two of its biggest goals were campaigning for women's unveiling and literacy.[1]

The Ali Bayramov Women’s Club was involved in many different spheres and had the overarching goal of transforming every aspect of women’s lives. When German Marxist theorist and women’s rights activist, Clara Zetkin, visited the Ali Bayramov club in 1924, she was greatly impressed, calling it a hub of gathering revolutionary forces.[2]

History

The Ali Bayramov Women’s Club, active in Baku and the surrounding regions, was opened in 1920. The Club was originally founded as a literacy and sewing circle by Jeyran Bayramova with the aim of enlightening Azeri women. The Club was named after her brother-in-law whom she married after her sister’s death, Ali Bayramov, who had encouraged her educational pursuits when her parents had not. Ali Bayramov, a leading Azeri Bolshevik, encouraged his wife to be active in the communist women’s movement. Bayramova first proposed the Club to her school friends during her husband’s funeral shortly after his death in March 1920.[3]

Early on Jeyran Bayramova and several other activists on the club’s presidium decided that in addition to offering conversation, prayer, and meetings, offering women the opportunity to be involved working at the sewing workshop would be an important means for attracting them to the club.

Several women laid the foundations by secretly bringing their own sewing machines from their husbands and fathers’ houses in order to set up the small sewing workshop. The sewing workshop which was started at the Ali Bayramov Club originally employed 7 workers, but eventually grew and was turned into the Ali Bayramov Textile Factory, where 1,500 women still work today.[4]

The founders faced challenges early on attracting women with organizational skills, especially given that most required permission from their husbands to participate and the male communist cadres’ ambivalence towards the project. Members in the early years of the Club’s activities were even targets of violence by those who thought the Club was instilling immoral values in women.[5]

On May 30, 1921, D. Bünyadzade issued an order decreeing the first Muslim women’s club in honor of comrade Ali Bayramov be established under the direction of the People's Commissariat for Education. He further declared that no other office could interfere in any of the club’s work, whether administrative, financial, or organizational.[6]

In 1922, Soviet authorities allowed the Club to occupy the extravagant former home of the wealthy Mukhtarov family, now called the Palace of Happiness.[7]

On May 26, 1925, a ceremonial meeting was held in the assembly hall of the Ali Bayramov Club to commemorate the club’s 5th anniversary.[8]

The Club was closed down in 1937, by which time the younger generation of Azeri women were largely unveiled and literate. Nonetheless, the Club was known as an exemplary center for guidance among Azerbaijani women for the work that it carried out.

Activities

The Club was also a training center for cadres of women going to organize regional clubs, unveiling campaigns, and literacy courses outside of the capital. The first group of women attracted to the Club were quickly enrolled in literacy classes. After a few months the trainees had to take an exam. Some were concerned after having heard rumors that those who received good grades on the exam would be sent to work in villages around Azerbaijan. Enthusiasm grew among the trainees, many of them fearlessly embracing the challenge. Some of the women excitedly thought: “we came to the club, started a sewing workshop, removed our veils, abolished illiteracy, and now what? After all, there are other women who also need help.” Thus, trainees who could prove their literacy were offered jobs at provincial clubs to educate, train, politicize, and enlighten local women. By the early 1930s, there were 103 such clubs.[9]

The first group of graduates who successfully passed the exams were sent to villages throughout the republic to do the important work of the revolution— transforming Azerbaijani women into full, equal members of society. Mina Xala was sent to Shamakhi, Mesme Memmedova to Khizi, Tahire Elekberova to Goychay, Agayeva Xanim to Lankaran, Bilqeyis Esgerli to Quba, Eliyeva Xanim to Nakhchivan, and Hokume Memmedova to Shusha.

History will never forget the names of these modest, courageous, fearless women who carried out the communist party’s political, cultural, and educational work among Azerbaijani women. The social and political activities of the Ali Bayramov club were begun by the following talented women organizers, among others: Mina Xala, Mesme Memmedova, Melenise Melikova, Xaver Şabanova-Qarayeva, Mesme Xala Elekberova, Mina Mirzeyeva, Hokume Memmedova, Q. Qedirbeyova, B. Qafarova, M. Mirqedirova, Fatma Haciyeva, B. Memmedova, S. Eyyubova, Susanna Mnatsakanova, Bilqeyis Heşimzade, Sara Talibli, Ruqiyye Ezimova.[10]

Another important function of the Club was its broader educational initiatives. The club offered literacy, vocational, and university access courses. Vocational training included telephone operating, accounting, nursing, midwifery, and sewing and weaving. In addition to the sewing workshop, many members of the Club also became midwives. The Club’s midwifery course was eventually turned into the School of Midwifery in Baku.[11]

Additionally, the club also offered women entertainment and socialization, which was previously inaccessible to women largely confined to working in the home or visiting the mosque.[12] There were a range of cultural, sports, and leisure activities, including plays and musical events performed by troupes of women, film screenings, game rooms (chess, backgammon, billiards), and dance classes. [13]

The Ali Bayramov Club also became associated with was its campaign for women’s unveiling, hujum, the goal of which was for women to cast off and stop wearing the chador and charshaf.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
  2. ↑ Klara Setkin. Qafqaz od içində. M, 1926, səh.91-92; Azərbaycanın Milli tarix muzeyinin ən yeni tarix fondu
  3. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
  4. ↑ "Sharg Gadini" jurnalı №2, mart 1925-ci il, Azərbaycanın Milli tarix muzeyinin ən yeni tarix fondu.
  5. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
  6. ↑ Azərbaycanın Milli tarix muzeyinin ən yeni tarix fondu. Azərbaycan hökumətinin fərman və direktivləri. 1920-1924
  7. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
  8. ↑ Azərbaycanın Milli tarix muzeyinin ən yeni tarix fondu. Bilqeyis Məmmədovanın xatirələri
  9. ↑ Sultanova, A. 1964. Schastlivye Zhenschiny Sovetskogo Azerbaidzhana (Happy Women of Soviet Azerbaijan), Azerbaijan Dovlat Nashriyatti, Baku.
  10. ↑ Azərbaycanın Milli tarix muzeyinin ən yeni tarix fondu. Bilqeyis Məmmədovanın xatirələri
  11. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
  12. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
  13. ↑ Kadirbekova, G. 1936. Bir Sarayin Tarikhi (The History of a Palace), Azerbaijan Dovlat Nashriyatti, Baku.
  14. ↑ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94
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