Peri-Khan Sofieva (, ka, ფერიხან სოფიევა; 1884 – 1953) was the first Muslim woman elected to office.

Biography

Sofiyeva was born in 1884 in the Georgian town of Karajala, then part of the Georgian region of

Tiflis Governorate Tiflis Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire with its administrative centre in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). In 1897, it constituted in area and had a population of 1,051,032 inhabitants. ...

, in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. She was the only girl in a family of eight. At the time of the Russian Empire, Sofia was the head of her brothers, thus gaining popularity. With the loan taken from a bank, she opened an orphanage in the village.The world's first democratically elected Muslim woman was from Georgia
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Political career

Independent Georgia

After the February 1917 Revolution, the transition from the South Caucasus began with a reform of the local governments. On 26 May 1918,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

declared its independence. In local elections later in the year, Sofiyeva was elected to be a councillor in Karajala. Although Sofiyeva was an active person, very little is known about her life.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

According to Rashgan Sofieva, the wife of Peri-Khan Sofieva's nephew, Sofiyeva hated the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government. Because of the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

, she walked around with her old

Mauser C96 The Mauser C96 (''Construktion 96'') is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 20 ...

pistol, after eight brothers were executed and buried in one of the common graves because they came from a rich family and were considered traitors.

Death

Sofiyeva died in 1953, victim of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AZERBAIJANI FELLOW CITIZENS
/ref> after hearing of the detention of one of her nephews.

External links

İlk müsəlman, azərbaycanlı qadın deputat - "Kişi Pəri" kimdir? (Biography in BBC Azerbaijan)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sofieva, Peri-Khan 1884 births 1953 deaths Georgian Azerbaijanis Politicians from the Russian Empire Democratic Republic of Georgia 20th-century women politicians from Georgia (country) 20th-century politicians from Georgia (country) People from Tiflis Governorate