Wishing for Seven Sons and One Daughter

The traditional Azerbaijani wedding wish serves as the title to this film and appears to be just a flowery ritual formula. Yet the colorful ethnographic scenes reveal a tragedy that has lasted since time immemorial. In this patriarchal society, girls are unwanted and "useless". In the past...

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Bibliographic Details
Institution:Open Society Archives at Central European University
Language:Azerbaijani
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:06234ad4-bd13-4067-97ee-b7f76a275df3
Description
Summary:The traditional Azerbaijani wedding wish serves as the title to this film and appears to be just a flowery ritual formula. Yet the colorful ethnographic scenes reveal a tragedy that has lasted since time immemorial. In this patriarchal society, girls are unwanted and "useless". In the past, new-born girls were often simply killed; yet, since the development of ultrasound, women have been compelled to seek abortions. Such an attitude towards women occasionally results in terrible family tragedies, one of which shook Azerbaijan a few years ago. This film is part of the Gender Montage: Paradigms in Post Soviet Space film series. Ali-Isa Dzhabbarov