Maryam Teymur qizi Bayramalibeyova (; 1898,

Lankaran Lankaran (, ) or Lánkon () is a city in Azerbaijan, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, near the southern border with Iran. As of 2021, the city had a population of 89,300. It is next to, but independent of, Lankaran District. The city forms a disti ...

– 1987,

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

) was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

i social activist and feminist, educator.

Early life

Maryam Bayramalibeyova was the daughter of Azerbaijani historian and journalist Teymur Bayramalibeyov and his wife Shirin (née Talyshinskaya), a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

-educated Talysh-Azerbaijani who translated a number works by classical

Russian writers This is a list of authors who have written works of prose and poetry in the Russian language. For separate lists by literary field: * List of Russian-language novelists * List of Russian-language playwrights * List of Russian-language poets ...

into

Azeri Azeri or Azeri Turk may refer to: * Azeri people, an ethnic group also known as Azerbaijanis * Citizens of Azerbaijan * Azeri language, the modern-day Turkic language * Old Azeri, an extinct Iranian language * Azeri Turk (journal), Academic jour ...

and was famous for promoting

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

and the neighbouring regions. In 1906 Maryam Bayramalibeyova was accepted to the Empress Alexandra Russian Muslim Boarding School for Girls in

and 7 years later, to Saint Nina's Secondary Boarding School. In 1917, she graduated from Saint Nina's with honours and was admitted to study medicine at Moscow State University. However, after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, being a daughter of an

upper-middle class In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...

literatus Bayramalibeyova considered her life to be in danger and returned to Lankaran (eventually she did manage to get a post-secondary education receiving an Honours B.A. in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

from

Baku State University Baku State University (BSU) (BDU; ) is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Established on 1 September 1919 by the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the university started with faculties of history and philology, physics ...

later in 1931). In her native city in 1917, she established the first all-girls secular school (named Uns) in the entire

uyezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd or uiezd; rus, уе́зд ( pre-1918: уѣздъ), p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context () was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the R ...

(administrative unit in Czarist Russia) with the help of Teymur Bayramalibeyov, and became its first principal. The Bayramalibeyovs visited many families in Lankaran encouraging them to send their daughters to Uns. The courses were taught in the Russian language. In order to promote the arts, Maryam Bayramalibeyova organized drama, choir, and musical clubs in the school, which apparently was a success as two of her students later became prominent Azerbaijani actresses and one became a renowned

mugham Mugham () or Mughamat () is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik. It is an art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific local modes. Mugham is a modal system. ...

singer.Wife of the Enemy of the People
by Agaddin Babayev. ''Nash vek''. 13 January 2005, #02(345). Retrieved 24 March 2007 In 1919, Bayramalibeyova founded the Lankaran Women's Charity Association.
by Zarifa Dulayeva. ''Vyshka''. 24 May 2002, #11. Retrieved 24 March 2007

Personal life

During the period of political instability in the

Talysh Talysh may refer to: *Talysh people, an ethnic group of Iran and Azerbaijan **Talysh language, the West Iranian language of these people ** Talysh, a historical region on the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, inhabited by the Talysh people *T ...

region Maryam Bayramalibeyova sent a letter to the

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

-appointed Governor-General of Lankaran, Javad Malik-Yeganov asking him to protect the school from the mischievous soldiers of the pro-

Denikin Anton Ivanovich Denikin (, ; – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military leader who served as the acting supreme ruler of the Russian State and the commander-in-chief of the White movement–aligned armed forces of South Russia during the Ru ...

army. During his visit to the school Malik-Yeganov and Bayramalibeyova met personally and despite the 20-year difference in age, they got married in 1920 and had three daughters: Azera, Taliya and Asiman.

Life in Soviet Azerbaijan

In 1925, four years after moving to

, Maryam Bayramalibeyova (then principle of a secondary school in Baku) she was chosen to represent Azerbaijan in the First All-Soviet Teachers Conference. While studying law at Baku State University she also translated works of Azerbaijani poets into Russian. In 1933, Bayramalibeyova's husband was arrested being suspected in being affiliated with the

Musavat The Müsavat Party (, from ''musāwāt'', ) is the oldest existing political party in Azerbaijan. Its history can be divided into three periods: Early Musavat, Musavat-in-exile and New Musavat. The party was prohibited from contesting the 1995 ...

Party (ruling political party in the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918–1920), and the family did not see him again. Five years later Bayramalibeyova herself was arrested on the same charge even though she never officially belonged to Musavat, and was forced to abandon her three children who would be looked after by their grandmother. She was sent in exile to a correctional camp in

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

, northern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, where she performed hard physical labour; however due to her rich educational background was promoted to the position of a bookkeeper. When in the early 1940s she started losing her sight, she was sent to the

Butyrka prison Butyrskaya prison (), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it served as the central transit prison. During the Soviet Uni ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

under pretence of being provided medical help due to her condition. The help was never provided and soon she was shipped back to Arkhangelsk, and later to

Karaganda Karaganda (, ; ), also known as Karagandy (, ; ; ) (also sometimes romanized as Qaraghandy), is a major city in central Kazakhstan and the capital of the Karaganda Region. It is the fifth most populous city in the country, with a population o ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. In 1948 having served her term, Maryam Bayramalibeyova, now practically blind, returned to Azerbaijan but was no longer able to continue her social work. In 1956, she was officially exonerated and in 1964 was granted a pension from the government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayramalibeyova, Maryam 1898 births 1987 deaths People from Lankaran People from Baku Governorate Azerbaijani people of Iranian descent Azerbaijani feminists Azerbaijani philanthropists Azerbaijani women educators 20th-century Azerbaijani educators 20th-century philanthropists 20th-century women philanthropists Talysh people Soviet educators Muslims from the Russian Empire