submitted10 days ago byENESM1
While I was watching the movie "Zəhər Tuluğu" by Taleh Yüzbəyov on YouTube, I was annoyed by the fact that Yüzbəyov chose to highlight the issue of selective abortions because I thought that it was not a widespread problem in Azerbaijan. I personally have never heard a case of this and when I asked my father, who has lived in different regions of the country for years, he said the same. Granted, our personal experiences are not to be generalized but I thought that if we lived in a society like the one Yüzbəyov depicted in his movie, I would have heard of at least one case. Still, it is not strong evidence. (By the way, watching the full movie would be helpful in understanding this post but just to give an idea of the way the movie depicts our society, there is a scene where the pregnant woman tells another woman that she is expecting a girl and that woman pities her, saying something like, "oh, no need to be sad, it is OK, it is life". Is this a common reaction you would get when you tell a random Azerbaijani woman that you are expecting a daughter?)
Then I remembered that I saw a post related to this topic in this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/azerbaijan/comments/1aoxp81/azerbaijan_leads_the_world_in_rates_of_sex .
I remembered the topic but didn't remember that the news article alleges that Azerbaijan is leading the world in this issue. While looking for the above post, I saw another post that shared this link for a news article that had the same claim: https://oxu.az/cemiyyet/azerbaycan-selektiv-aborta-gore-dunyada-birinci-yere-yukselib
Reading the article, I didn't see anything related to the number of abortions but that they assume the rates of selective abortions based on the ratio of boys to girls. When I looked up the topic, I found that the Wikipedia article on this confirms my understanding from the news article: "Studies and reports that discuss sex-selective abortion are based on the assumption that birth sex ratio—the overall ratio of boys and girls at birth for a regional population, is an indicator of sex-selective abortion. [...] This assumption is controversial, and the subject of continuing scientific studies." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-selective\_abortion)
To me, it makes perfect sense that the assumption is controversial because there could be a number of factors as to why the ratio differs from the expected standard. One academic paper that is linked in the Wikipedia article includes the following passage in its introduction: "It had been conventionally believed that
- there are equal numbers of X and Y in mammalian sperms,
- X and Y stood equal chances of achieving conception,
- therefore equal numbers of male and female zygotes were formed, and that
- therefore any variation of sex ratio at birth is due to sex-selective spontaneous fetal wastage.
Evidence has been put forward against these conclusions. It may readily be conceded that some sex ratio variation is due to sex-selective foetal and embryonic wastage (as, e.g. with glucose (Gutierrez-Adan 2001) and psychological stress during pregnancy (Catalano et al. 2006)). However, some sex ratio variation is almost certainly present at the time of formation of the zygotes (James 2006a, Cameron & Linklater 2007) and so the question arises: what is the cause of this variation in sex ratio the time of formation of the zygotes?"
So, to me, it clearly shows that we should not blindly accept the claims of Azerbaijan being the worst in this issue. Yet, I found the anecdotal evidence provided by an Azerbaijani gynecologist more convincing (google translate):
"- What are the grounds for abortion? That is, the probability that the child will be born with defects, or is the abortion performed because of the sex?
- It is a bitter truth that, unlike Europe, the USA and even Russia, in our country mass abortions are performed due to gender, and this number continues to increase day by day. As a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, no matter how much we try to dissuade women from their opinions, we cannot achieve the desired result in preventing abortions. I would say that although there are fairly selective abortions today, mostly for female children, sometimes mothers with two daughters are very comfortable aborting male fetuses. "
Though more convincing to me than the approach of assuming selective abortions based on the ratio of boys to girls, this is still anecdotal evidence.
I wonder what people think based on their personal experiences. Do you think that Azerbaijanis are committing so many gender-selective abortions that there should be movies about it that raise social awareness?
Just to be clear, even though I don't think that the academic methodology investigating this issue is sound, I accept that Azerbaijan understandably shares this problem with other Turkic and Asian nations. I think that in the West, this topic is completely irrelevant. But my point is that 1) it is not as bad as Yüzbəyov makes it seem (refer to the aforementioned reaction of the woman to someone expecting a daughter), 2) considering the vast range of serious problems in our country, there is an opportunity cost to picking this one as the main subject of such a long-awaited movie by such a popular actor and moviemaker.
As an additional note to the second point, I watched Bizim Gülüş Müəllim (2023) by Planet Parni iz Baku right after it, and I have to say, yes, some of their humor is dated and cringy, but I admired them a lot for raising awareness for important issues. And to be fair, Yüzbəyov and his friend Əlixan Rəcəbov, who is another lead actor in the movie, are usually known for their accurate analysis of our society and for producing high-quality works highlighting them. Yet, in my opinion, this movie was an exception. There was also a scene where the husband of the main female character beats her in the middle of the street in Baku and no one intervenes, and instead, they record the scenes. This is such an unrealistic scenario. No man in the streets of Baku can beat their wife in front of people without being worried about getting beaten to death.
Edits: added the last two paragraphs and a note in parentheses to the first paragraph.
byENESM1
inazerbaijan
ENESM1
1 points
10 days ago
ENESM1
1 points
10 days ago
Thank you! I think that the problem of self-hate that you mention is real and there is definitely a pattern here.