Our readers are already familiar with the designer Gunel Gasanova – she talks about trends and current events of fashion industry in her blog Etre a la mode. But today we are not talking fashion. Gunel has made a gift to all compatriots – on February 2 she launched the online platform where the best books are available for reading and best movies for watching in the native language, where you can exchange experience and knowledge, get inspired by example of successful women and to get access to the lectures, seminars and interactive master classes of leading experts from around the world. And the most important – all materials are translated into Azerbaijani language! Instant time and space travel, an opportunity to communicate with interesting people, overcoming language barriers and discovering for yourself endless opportunities – isn’t this what Internet is made for?
Strong women, starting with my mother have always inspired me. I admire the power of women, especially in countries of Middle East, where women always were one step behind men and had less opportunities and knowledge. Despite all restrictions, beautiful women of Azerbaijan always move forward and work on quality of their lives. And I thought: "Why not?". In this great time when female voices sound so loudly, we bring together women on one online platform. It is free, the service is open for everyone – doesn’t matter if you live in Baku, London, New York or Sabirabad. As you have an access to information, you can share experience and support each other.
London is a cosmopolitan city, perhaps, one of the most multilingual cities in the world. How often you use Azerbaijani language and what would you advise to those who went abroad, but does not want to lose their mother tongue?
This is my sore point. I understand and speak Russian, but I went to Azerbaijani school and with the family we always spoke in Azerbaijani at home. With friends or family I speak Azerbaijani or English. And it helps keeping skills of communication. An option of forgetting the native language does not exist for me in general – I spoke it since my childhood, I love old Azerbaijani movies and I rewatch them many times. I read books on Azerbaijani, though not as much as I would like to. Once me and my brother forgot some word near our father and, without noticing it, switched to English. Father scolded us a lot afterwards. Thus, we need to support in ourselves and other the love to our mother tongue. Where fate wouldn’t bring us, it is important to preserve your values in any point of the world.
Your project is focused on online training. Did you study something online yourself?
Yes! Thanks to online lessons I learned to play guitar, achieved basic knowledge about snowboarding, learned to cook and even bake. Also I improved my skills of time-management and learning. Plus I listened the interviews of successful men and women and became more confident. We included video conversations with these people in the project as well. We translated a huge number of interviews, seminars and other materials into Azerbaijani. Besides practical skills like cooking or sport they taught me a lot – how not to give up and always follow your dream, to set accurate goals and reach them. I achieved a lot of knowledge and skills thanks to online materials. This is what’s great about the Internet! I know that there is a lot of talk about the harm coming from Internet, but we cannot deny its good side. And I am simply happy that our team was able to gather and upload all this information for public access, so that our Azerbaijani women, regardless of circumstances, could gain something from this information. This is our main goal.
If you educate a boy you educate one person, if you educate a girl you educate a family (H.Z.Taghiyev)
Is online education popular in Great Britain?
And not only in Great Britain! In the Western world it is actually very developed, there are websites like Coursera, online courses which can be passed at any convenient time, in the end of which you receive authenticated certificate of the university or college. Graduating the university is, obviously, a perfect option, but if for any reason you cannot make it or already have the diploma, but you want to continue education, online courses will help. They help a lot with career development and expand the resume. We plan on cooperating with universities to help women not only take training courses, but also receive certificates. This is the next level, and in order to reach it, we need to see interest coming from people, they should visit our website and use its resources, improve their skills and learn new things.
Are all these materials are available for free?
Yes, and that’s the whole point. All these materials are available not only for watching, reading and listening online – you can download and listen to our podcasts offline. And it is absolutely free! It is not a commercial website, we do not charge for anything. No need to pay for registration or access to any exclusive materials. Everybody is equal, we all have the same free access to all materials.
What is your target and how you will understand that the project worked out?
The aim, of course, is to make sure that as much people as possible use these training materials. Getting through that 16-year-old girl in the remote town of Azerbaijan who thinks: "I want to come to Baku because that’s where everything happens", – this is my target. No need to go far – just go online. It is enough to read couple lines about how to make something right, – and then to apply this knowledge in practice. There is everything available in our country –bookstores and the sports centers... The main thing is to learn using all this with the maximum benefit. I hope, that someday it will become natural to all of us – to make positive life changes, instead of wasting time – reading the books or listening training audio. If we start doing it, then our children and their friends will too. I already know that the project will work out because I see huge interest in it – and also because our team entirely consists of volunteers. We do not pay anybody. Everyone works here on a voluntary basis because each one knows that with our culture and strong family values we can achieve a lot.
You named the project after the folklore character Tiq-tiq khanim which is pictured as "a weak woman". What, in your opinion, is this tale about?
I really believe that she is pictured as a weak woman – she is lonely, constantly sad and so on. And like this till the end of the cartoon where Mouse abandons her, and Tiq-tiq khanim gets depressed. But it is obvious to me that the story is not only about it. Tiq-tiq khanim wakes up in the morning, does her make-up, puts on beautiful shoes, makes herself a skirt from flower – and feels beautiful. And this gives her incredible self-confidence what makes her capricious and treating her friends badly. Confidence is wonderful, but everything has its limits. Eventually excessive self-confidence of Tiq-Tiq khanim does not lead to anything good. You may have beauty today, but not tomorrow, and there is always someone more beautiful, you need to be confident, strong. Both in Britain and America women considered as weaker sex too. I want to change this stereotype.
What would you advise to begin with to those who are new at your website?
Personally I would begin with watching our video to have visual idea about who we are, how we position ourselves and what we expect from our audience. And then it is definitely worth glancing at Super women section where we gathered interviews of inspiring women of Azerbaijan. You can get advices from them, read about their progress, what they began with and how they came to what they have now. These sections may be be considered as main, but frankly speaking, we have a lot of materials from books to advice for mothers, which videos should be shown to the child during meal. And all the questions can be discussed at a forum.
