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Paper abstract:

Enhancing girls’ education and empowering women are one of the main targets of the modern world. So that educated women achieve all kinds of milestones and assist in developing any society. Not a secret that literate, empowered, and motivated women can change the world for a better place. Girls’ education was one of the main topics at the end of the XX century, becoming even more actual after Malala Yousafzai’s tragedy in 2010.

Since its independence in 1991, Azerbaijan, like other post-soviet countries, adopted international laws on gender equality, implemented a series of gender-based projects, joined women empowering policies, and ratified almost all essential documents on protecting women’s rights. The most critical adopted policies are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995 and The Joint Plan of Action on the Prevention of Domestic Violence (2016–2018).

Azerbaijan and Türkiye consider being the two closest countries, tied in history, heritage, religion, traditions, and politics. The two countries have kept tight political, financial, and institutional approaches for over thirty years. Therefore, Azerbaijan adopted almost all educational policies and laws regarding education from Türkiye’s experience. Thus, we want to compare the literacy rate of women of two countries from once post-colonial (Azerbaijan) and colonial (Türkiye) perspectives as traces still remain.

Drawing on the idea that the best equality in education will lead to economic participation and opportunity, health and survival, and political empowerment, I focused on the latest national and international documents in search of female education levels in K-12 and Higher Education. I explored annual reports published by Azerbaijan and Türkiye, world institutions, organizations, and the united nations. In places, I made comparisons with previous years, male education level, and other neighboring countries.

So far, research has resulted that the gender gap index in educational attainment is lower in Türkiye than in Azerbaijan. Compared to previous years, girls’ education in Azerbaijan has almost reached male counterparts in many fields, still backing out to other post-soviet countries. However, international documents and reports analysis show decreasing results for Türkiye. Finally, the comparison shows that both countries have the highest literacy rate and girls’ equality since their existence, but still, much work is needed in rural areas.