ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the contemporary era and on the changing "place" of women in Azeri society. Given that major social, political, and economic events in the late 1800s and 1900s were instrumental in reconstructing Azeri women's place and identity in Azeri society and provided the foundation for women's place in contemporary Azerbaijan, the chapter begins with an overview of this historical context. For Azerbaijan, the declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 brought the establishment of the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan and ushered in a new era of sociopolitical and economic change for the Azeri people. Economic problems of the transition were intensified by the Nagorno-Karabakh War with Armenia which had started in 1988 and continued during the early 1990s. The varied Azerbaijan government actions and the concerted efforts of Azeri women's NGOs have been instrumental in providing Azeri women a "voice" and in the social reconstruction of women's roles in the "new" post-Soviet Azeri society.
