State committee chief comments on why Azerbaijan has fewer shelters for women

Bahar Muradova, chairwoman of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children's Affairs, commented on why Azerbaijan has fewer shelters for women, Report informs.

According to her, the safest shelter for a person is her family,

"We must try to make people feel comfortable, free and safer in their family because we cannot cover the whole family environment with shelter," she said.

Bahar Muradova opined that the desire for asylum should not leave other issues behind: "Of course, shelters have been established both under international organizations and in accordance with state programs, and it is planned to further create new ones. This should cover different regions. If a victim stays in a shelter, a perpetrator should not know where she is. Given this, there is no need for a shelter in each city or district. Although the number of shelters is small, there are no difficulties for people forced into shelters, that is, they can be placed there. This indicates that violence has either not been shown to the extent of placing her in a shelter, or that a victim is still tolerating. We intend to change the attitude of society to this issue.”