WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT FACT SHEET DELIVERED

UNCLAS BAKU 001672 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR S/WE SASHA MEHRA AND GERDA LANE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KWMN PHUM PREL UNGA AJ SUBJECT: WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT FACT SHEET DELIVERED REF: SECSTATE 178055 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. THIS IS AN ACTION REQUEST. SEE PARAGRAPH 2 BELOW. ¶1. (SBU) On November 6 Poloff delivered reftel fact sheet to Chair of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children's Issues Hijran Huseynova. Poloff left the fact sheet as a nonpaper. Huseynova expressed a high interest in engaging with the USG on women's empowerment issues. She identified several female GOAJ leaders whom she felt would be interested in a future dialogue on the topic, including the deputy ministers of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Economic Development, as well as the 14 female Members of Parliament (MPs),including Deputy Speaker of Parliament Bahar Muradova, and First Lady (and newly elected MP) Mehriban Aliyeva, who plans to travel to the U.S. on an official visit December 4-8. The Ambassador plans to brief First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva on this women's empowerment initiative before Aliyeva's December visit to the U.S. We will report any substantive response septel. ¶2. (SBU) ACTION REQUESTED: Huseynova told Poloff that she plans to travel to the U.S. in January with a group of Azerbaijani female leaders and would be interested in meeting with relevant U.S. female leaders in New York and Washington. She asked for Embassy recommendations regarding meetings to engage on wome's empowerment issues. We view this as an importnt visit, and request the Department's assistance n arranging appropriate meetings for Huseynova ad her group. DERSE