However, at the turn of the 20th century, the stereotypes prevalent in Azerbaijan remain the same, while the philosophy of the modern Azerbaijani woman has changed.
Overall, the inculcation of xenophobia dispensed from the lips of women follows a classic scenario added to the armory of the official ideology, the only difference being that its female version is more emotional in character and stands at the outset of the nascent personality.
Eluja Atali Explanation for the little Fidan: All of a sudden, little Fidan asked:…-Then, why do we call them (Armenians) ‘mundar’ (dirty, vile)? Her age of 4 years prevented me from gathering my thoughts and giving an accurate answer. Considering her age, I picked my words carefully and said:
– Look, my little one, when a person has a vile and filthy heart, this propagates all over the body through the blood. And no matter how much they wash their hands and face, they cannot get clean. You can’t wash away just any dirt with water.498
For the mother, “picking the words carefully” means a choice of terms and phrases understandable for a 4-year-old child rather than the semantic content of the answer to her question. It is important for the author that the girl learns a lifetime lesson that “Armenians are vile and filthy”.
Women exert impact on future generations through laying the groundwork for the child’s socialization and social adaptation.
Socialization is the process of learning the social roles, cultural adaptation and acquiring the skills of social interaction. This is the process of entering the society by an individual through acquired social experience, meeting social expectations, following norms and values which are in demand for a successful life in the given society.
It is in the process of socialization that personal traits, knowledge and skills formulate enabling the individual to partake in social relationships. Socialization occurs as the individual becomes spontaneously influenced by various life circumstances as well as through deliberate shaping of the individual makeup.
The spontaneous socialization covers companies of children and teenagers, the impact of various prejudiced opinions, old customs and traditions.499 The depictions of children’s games by female Azerbaijani writers Umm-El-Banine and Shabnam Kheyrulla in the early 20th and in the early 21st centuries respectively provide illustrative examples of the spontaneous socialization.
Umm-El-Banine: On holidays, we played our favorite game – the Armenian massacre. Inflamed with racism, we lost our heads and sacrificed Tamara to our enmity and hatred inherited from our ancestors. First, we hurled at her unfounded accusations of killing Tatars and relished in several rounds of executing her by shooting. We feasted our eyes upon the sight of her blood and then resurrected her again to kill her by conventional means: we bound her hands and feet together, threw her on the ground, first cut her tongue and then severed her head; to show our hatred to her Armenian body, we carved out her heart and internal organs and threw them to the dogs. After our wild rampage subsided, and there was nothing left of the poor girl’s body, we started dancing around her body waiving our wooden swords as savages. If anyone passed by, we immediately helped Tamara to her feet and with our tongues dry from fear, grabbed her hand and whirled around the garden singing children’s songs. She never dreamed of making any complaints against us because we would have called her a snitch, a traitor and dirty Armenian; besides, she would lose our company. No matter how much we insulted, humiliated and permanently killed her, she couldn’t live without our friendship.500
Shabnam Kheyrulla: One of these days, I witnessed how the kids from our neighborhood played tag in the street. I was so fascinated with the children’s game that I decided to watch. A girl of five or six, her brother one year younger and other children of about the same age were crying noisily and merrily to decide who was to run and who was to chase. After long bickering, they finally decided to assign roles using a counting-out rhyme. I was about to walk on, but this counting-out rhyme pronounced by the little girl drew my attention because of its unique and original character. It is actually the reason why I set about telling you this story:
These words brought an involuntary smile to my lips. At the same time, it made me wonder: can it be really true that at this early age our children already understand who Armenians are, who the enemy is, and hate them? The thought was comforting, but I was still incredulous.501
Spontaneous impact may include one-time, non-recurrent emotional publications in the press, single watching of a video, etc. They have a much weaker acceleration effect, but may exert dramatic impact, especially if they can shock the child.
Deliberate socialization: this category covers special institutes of socialization, such as nurseries, kindergartens, schools (with mandatory secondary education), vocational schools, technical schools and universities. This list can be supplemented by all kinds of public organizations. “All of these serve a single goaclass="underline" align a young individual to the ideal personal standard established by all societies. To a lesser or greater extent, it is always a forcible process”502
The sociologist names five principle ways of how an individual reacts to deliberate socialization: submission, renewal of environment, ritualism, escapism, and creative revolt.
Later, I asked the 4-year-old son of my elder sister a question:
– Who is an Armenian?
– A terrorist.
– Who is a terrorist?
– They kill children.
Then he came dragging a huge book entitled The Armenian Terror probably thinking that it would be easier to explain if he showed me some photographs.
– All these children were killed by Armenians, he said, it’s even on You Tube!
– How do you know all this?
– Grandma told me…503
A 5-year-old girl at schooclass="underline" A daughter of my friends gets ready for school and has begun attending a nursery class. After she came home today, she told her mother what they had been taught at school. The teacher gave them their third lesson.
– Armenians made us unhappy and miserable. Remember this, children. Who are our enemies? Right, Armenians. Learn this well, I will surely ask you about it during the next lesson. Armenians slaughtered our ancestors, completed her speech the 20-year-old teacher.