‘No one will know I did it’ — Azerbaijan turns blind eye to victims of domestic violence

Gunay Mammadova, the mother of two young children, was only 22-years-old when she was killed in her house on Sunday. Shortly after, her 32-year-old husband Mahammad Dashdamirov voluntarily turned himself in to the police station, where he remains in custody on suspicion of murder.

This was just the latest case of domestic violence Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova has recorded in her attempt to raise awareness of domestic violence.

An alarming increase in murders

According to a report by the State Statistical Committee, in 2023, there were 1,482 reports of domestic violence. Included among these were 62 deaths — yet only 18 cases were opened for murder, and only 49 people were charged with intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.

As Sadigova highlights in conversation with OC Media, there are only two laws in Azerbaijan: ‘one on the prevention of domestic violence, and the other on those who refuse to report it’.

She emphasises that this is not enough to combat domestic violence, especially as Azerbaijan’s criminal code ‘does not yet provide for domestic violence in an aggravated form, and there is no additional provision on the presence of female circumcision on the basis of domestic violence’.

While there are no government statistics publically available for 2024 or 2025 yet, Sadigova has been doing her own media monitoring to track domestic violence cases.

According to her research, in June alone, there were 12 cases — five women were killed and seven wounded, two of whom were left in critical condition.

‘Over the past six months, 362 women who suffered from domestic violence have contacted the State Committee for Family, Women, and Children’s Affairs. Over the past six months, 40 protection orders have been issued’, Sadigova wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

She noted that over the past six months, she has ‘also received about 10 orders and one long-term protection order’.

In July, Sadigova collected reports of nine women being killed that month, including two elderly women — Balabika Zeynalova, 85, and Tamilla Ismailova, 77 — who died after being beaten by a son and grandson, respectively.

‘You want to destroy the family’

Beyond the lack of legislation as a hindering factor, Sadigova highlights that women go to the police to report such crimes only ‘very rarely’ and often when they have already been abused for years.

‘We are talking about a brave woman who went to the police, and then to a shelter, but after leaving the shelter, what can she do? She has no job, no strength, some have no education, and no profession. This woman is forced to go back to her abuser, and as a result, unfortunately, murders occur’, Sadigova says.

On 16 July, a post on Facebook shared the case of Ulviyya Gasimova, 49, the wife of former police officer Ramiz Abshov.

‘Due to the violence, I wanted to return to my father’s house, but my mother again returned me to this hell. My son and daughters tried to protect me, but he beat them. I have a heart defect, arrhythmia, and varicose veins’, the post quoted Gasimova as saying.

In 2021, when Gasimova was again faced with violence, her eldest daughter ran out of the house to the neighbours’, and called the police.

‘The police arrived and told my daughter: “Why are you divulging the secret of the house? You want to destroy the family”. As a result, we filed an application stating that everything was fabricated by my daughter and returned home’, Gasimova wrote.

Only in June 2025 did Gasimova, with the support of her daughter, appeal to the Absheron District Executive Authority for a restraining order. Yet, even this was not enough to protect her from her husband Abshov.

On 10 July, Abshov attacked Gasimova and their son, injuring both with an iron tool.

Due to the violation of the requirements of the protective order, Abshov appeared in court on 14 July. When he stated that he had not been informed a protective order was in place, the judge rejected Gasimova’s application stating that he had broken said order during the attack.

Now, Gasimova is begging state agencies to save her and her children’s lives.

‘If a woman contacts the police, the police will record it in the protocol, and, at best, will place the woman in a shelter where she will stay’, Sadigova tells OC Media, noting that there is no legislation that is interested in the subsequent ‘fate’ of the victim.

On 29 June, another story was circulated in local media about a woman’s death.

Konul Ibrahimova, 20, died after falling from the eighth floor of a residential building in the village of Khojasan in the Baku suburbs.

According to the pro-government media outlet Qafqazinfo.az, Ibrahimova had only moved to the village recently, after marrying Nijat Yusifzada, a veteran of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

According to Ibrahimova’s parents and sister, Yusifzada had told Ibrahimova to throw herself off the balcony, adding ‘I will throw you out myself, no one will know that I did it’. The building’s guard confirmed the statement.

After the news was published, Yusifzada’s former wife stated on social media that he was abusive, adding that she had been severely beaten by him multiple times. She claimed that her life was only saved by her mother.

Despite these statements, it is not clear whether Yusifzada has been detained. As of publication, the local prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into Ibrahimova’s cause of death.