Reading for Freedom
Common Language Project Oct. 14 2011 I paid my first visit to Emin Milli a couple of days after he’d been let out of prison. There were boxes all over his new home, and the only food he had to offer was cabbage, cherry jam and tea. But amidst the mess, he’d managed to unpack … Read more
Families Face Evictions in Booming Baku
New York Times August 10, 2011 Before the notices started to arrive, Eldostu Elman had a pretty clear idea how his life would unfold, at least as far as the living arrangements. He would live in the apartment where he was raised, along with his parents, his sons and, when they eventually marry, their families. … Read more
An Oasis
Commonweal Magazine July/August 2011 By the time Ali (not his real name) reached Azerbaijan, the most difficult part of his long journey was supposed to be over. He had left his father, wife, and one-year-old son in their village in Afghanistan, trekked across his war-torn country, crossed the Iranian border illegally, and sneaked into Azerbaijan … Read more
Becoming a Regular
Zocalo Public Square June 23, 2011 Shaurma No. 1 is not for girls. At least, it’s not for the kind of girl who wanders in in a tank top at 7:30 in the morning because she can’t find an Internet cafe with Skype. In my first week living in Baku, I made daily journeys out … Read more
Young web-savvy Azerbaijanis take parents out of dating equation
Christian Science Monitor June 14, 2011 The way 22-year-old Fidan explains it, in Azerbaijan there is a way these things are done. She meets a boy, and maybe they hit it off. If so, he’ll send his mom over to her house for some tea. If his mom likes her family, the boy’s father will … Read more
Saving the Stories
Christian Science Monitor March 28, 2011 Growing up, Kholoud Saleh never heard the story of the donkey and the grain. Or the one about the magic fish that helped a lonely stepdaughter escape her evil stepmother. “The older people, they were told [these stories],” she says. “But us, no.” Ms. Saleh is part of the first generation … Read more
Open Mike
Columbia Journalism Review March/April 2011 Khadija Ismayilova commands an audience. It’s the first thing you notice about her, in a country ruled overwhelmingly by men, whether you are in her office or on the other end of her nightly broadcast. In Azerbaijan, although the press is nominally free, reporters are routinely harassed, beaten, jailed, and … Read more
American Chief of Khazar U., in Azerbaijan, Faces System Plagued with Problems
Chronicle of Higher Education Feb 22, 2011 In the seven months since becoming the country’s first foreign rector of an Azeri university, John Ryder has been a busy man. He has created new Ph.D. programs, revamped the structure of the institution’s administration, and wooed its first potential donors. Mr. Ryder has pledged to transform the … Read more
Azerbaijan Invests in Educational Infrastructure
Global Post December 28, 2010 English teacher Gulsham Huseynli is grateful for the little things, such as projectors and wider hallways. For two years, she has been teaching in what was effectively a two-room schoolhouse — teachers took shifts offering classes from two kindergarten classrooms. It wasn’t always like this. The Mingachevir school was once … Read more
Department of Veterans Affairs reaching out to vets via blogs and social media
Washington Post April 9, 2010 A little before 8 every morning, Brandon Friedman steps into his cubicle, turns on his computer and tries to single-handedly revolutionize the way the Department of Veterans Affairs talks to vets. Friedman, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at VA eight months ago with a mandate: to reach veterans … Read more
