{"id":188313,"date":"2018-01-23T13:44:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T13:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/article\/azerbaijans-model-soldier-pinup-writer-and-fighter\/"},"modified":"2021-10-29T14:35:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T10:35:26","slug":"azerbaijans-model-soldier-pinup-writer-and-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/azerbaijans-model-soldier-pinup-writer-and-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan\u2019s model soldier: Pinup, writer and fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
\n This article was originally published by
\n
\n Eurasianet
\n <\/a>
\n <\/i>\n<\/p>\n

\n An elite trooper competing in beauty pageants and posing for risqu\u00e9 photoshoots is not something you see every day, especially in a Muslim country, but
\n
\n Tehrana Bahruzi
\n <\/a>
\n , a member of Azerbaijan\u2019s special forces, has made a career out of doing just that. Now she has also written a book about her career as a woman in Azerbaijan’s military.\n<\/p>\n

\n Tehrana Bahruzi has often landed in
\n
\n media spotlight
\n <\/a>
\n as she grabbed the brass ring on both battle and beauty fronts. The athletically built commando has posed for a number of photoshoots, sporting both camouflage as well as more traditionally feminine outfits. In 2015, she even
\n
\n won
\n <\/a>
\n a Vice Ms. Top of the World title; in the talent portion of the contest, she showed off her martial arts skills.\n<\/p>\n

\n Most recently, Bahruzi has attracted attention for a more prosaic accomplishment: her book, \u201cZakir Hasanov: the Ideal Minister.\u201d The volume, \u201ca real account with fictionalized elements,\u201d describes her path as a woman in the military service and panegyrizes her boss, the defense minister of her militarism and autocracy-prone country.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cEvery person thinks of the lodestar that shines as a guiding light on his path. For me this light was Zakir Hasanov,\u201d Bahruzi
\n
\n gushed
\n <\/a>
\n in her comments to Sputnik. \u201cHe was the one to launch a female special force unit in the army of Azerbaijan\u2026 and now I just can\u2019t imagine myself outside military service.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Based on her comments, her book may have some interesting insights on what it is like for women to serve in the military in a country and region where conservative views on gender roles refuse to fade away. But don\u2019t expect the book, meant as a birthday present for Hasanov, to look at the abuses in the army that happened on his watch.\n<\/p>\n

\n Army bullying and hazing continue to scourge
\n
\n Azerbaijan
\n <\/a>
\n , as well as its sworn enemy
\n
\n Armenia
\n <\/a>
\n . Most combat deaths in the two countries are caused by chronic exchanges of fire between them, but Armenia and Azerbaijan also share a persistent problem of noncombat military deaths.\n<\/p>\n

\n Bahruzi\u2019s book instead focuses on Hasanov\u2019s purported ability to inspire soldiers’ devotion to their country, including in one impressionable \u201cpatriotic girl,\u201d and his efforts to make military service accessible to women.\n<\/p>\n

\n Azerbaijan has been indeed trying to step up female presence in the army, as has its next-door enemy,
\n
\n Armenia
\n <\/a>
\n .\n<\/p>\n

\n Azerbaijan takes pride in its Soviet-era history of women in service, which most prominently includes a World War II sniper Ziba Ganiyeva. Now Azerbaijan has a new cohort of female snipers, described as \u201cFragile but Fearless\u201d in one
\n
\n news article
\n <\/a>
\n .\n<\/p>\n

\n Bringing more women into military service opens new avenues for women in the traditionalist societies of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, but women also are becoming more involved in a policy of militarism and constant brinkmanship between the two nations that remain locked in a fierce territorial dispute.\n<\/p>\n

\n Attempts to question this \u2013 or any government policy for that matter \u2013 are harshly suppressed in Azerbaijan, while Bahruzi\u2019s laudations for Azerbaijani military and its chief are freely available in hardcover. Her book, if anything, promotes unquestionable loyalty to the authority. Wherever she is, she will remain Hasanov\u2019s loyal soldier, Bahruzi said.\n<\/p>\n

\n But perhaps she can also inspire a more peaceful trend. Maybe everyone in this conflict-riven region would benefit if soldiers \u2013 male or female — were to take a page from her book and do less war, more modeling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beauty pageant winner Tehrana Bahruzi has written a panegyric to her boss, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":98404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAzerbaijan\u2019s model soldier: Pinup, writer and fighter - MEYDAN.TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/azerbaijans-model-soldier-pinup-writer-and-fighter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Azerbaijan\u2019s model soldier: Pinup, writer and fighter - 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