Some weeks ago, I received a disturbing message from an Azerbaijani activist telling me that a woman was being targeted on social media. As a result, her family was after her, and the woman was looking for help. The incident reminded me of countless other instances, where a woman was harassed, abused, and physically targeted simply because she was a woman. But also because, Azerbaijan's mentality when it comes to women, their bodies, and their worth is pre-defined, and pre-determined within traditionally dominant values and backward assumptions. Why did I decide to write about this? Because it's March. Just three weeks ago, women across the world, including in Azerbaijan, marked International Women’s Day (IWD), and despite all the struggles over the decades, women continue to face inequality, harassment, and abuse. Regardless of age, profession, or status, a woman’s life is narrowed down to her body, its worth, and its shape. Her dignity and privacy are disrespected and Azerbaijan’s patriarchal, macho mentality supports this. Azerbaijani men consider it their duty, to put a woman in her place, by shaming her offline, and online. The Azerbaijani mentality supports the traditional narrative that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, within the confines of the house where often, women face violence and abuse, and are exploited because they are a cheap labor force. No, in fact, their lives are cheap, and for those who follow this narrative, what needs can a woman have, anyway? Her sole purpose is to care for, provide for, and raise children. Children who will likely grow into women shaped by the stories of their abused and silenced mothers, carrying the trauma on to the next generation. Over and over again. In Azerbaijan, this narrow-minded mentality cares more about a woman’s underwear, her body and her intimate life, than about her successes, achievements, and her mind. Sadly, this is not only common among regular men but also the government of Azerbaijan, which very often considers women as a tool — whether to threaten a politically active, often male, family member; to intimidate and silence women themselves, when women are themselves politically active, or journalists, or rights defenders, or even to stuff ballot boxes. When the government wanted to intimidate a political leader, Jamil Hasanli, it used his daughter, Gunel Hasanli, threatening the political leader to disseminate intimate videos of his daughter that were filmed in secret at his daughter’s home. For those familiar with the Azerbaijani state’s blackmail campaign targeting critics, the story of one specific journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, being blackmailed this way, comes to mind. A similar method of intimidation was used to target an exiled blogger, Mahammad Mirzali, whose sister was the target of an online harassment campaign. Azerbaijan’s legislation does not contain any punitive measures for physical or online abuse and harassment against women. In March 2021, multiple Telegram groups shared sex tapes and nude photographs of Azerbaijani women, among them journalists, like Fatima Movlamli, and civic activists, like Narmin Shahmarzade. In a recent interview with Voice of America, Shahmarzade explained how women’s underwear has been a useful tool during elections. “During elections, bras come in handy for ballot stuffing,” she explained. She was referring to a common election fraud mechanism used in Azerbaijan where election commission representatives stuff pre-registered ballots into their bras or under their clothes, which they then use to stuff the ballot boxes. “And when [the government] goes after a political opponent it resorts to methods like exposing a woman’s privacy, including what she does in her bedroom.” This shows that “they [the authorities] knowingly put the lives of women in danger,” said Shahmarzade. Another feminist activist Gulnara Mehdiyeva told Voice of America in an interview ahead of the International Women's Day march, “In every house, a woman manages the household economics. She is the one who decides how the salary the husband brings home should be spent. And when she fails, she often faces violence. And so, poverty affects women.” In addition to poverty, there is also a significant gap in employment opportunities.