The idea of creating the women’s press arose in the early days of the Sovietization of Azerbaijan. The issues of increasing of women’s social activity in the country, struggling against religious superstitions, eliminating of illiteracy, involving of women in agricultural and industrial development were among the most important ones facing the Women’s Department of the Central Committee of the ACP(b). In July 1923, Aliheydar Garayev, secretary of the Central Committee of the ACP(b), Habib Jabiyev, editor of the newspaper “Kommunist”, and Ayna Sultanova, an employee of the Women’s Department of the Central Committee of the ACP(b), put forward the idea of creating the women’s magazine.

On 2 July 1923, to ensure the participation of Azerbaijani women in social and political life, the Central Committee of the ACP(b) established a monthly literary-artistic and social-political Sharg gadini magazine (“Woman of the East”). The first issue of the magazine was published in November 1923 with a circulation of 1,000 copies and consisted of 40 pages.

In the first years of publication, the magazine was sent to Moscow, Leningrad, Crimea, Central Asian republics, as well as outside the USSR, to Turkey and Iran. Letters from Tabriz, Resht, Kazvin and Istanbul welcomed the publication of the first issue of the magazine.

The first editor-in-chief of the magazine was Ayna Sultanova.

In addition to her party and state work, A. Sultanova also worked as a publicist in the newspapers “Pravda”, “Communist”, “Baku Worker”, “Trud”, “Zarya Vostoka”, “Yeni Yol”, “For Communist Enlightenment” and many other newspapers, often giving speeches and publishing articles in magazines.

As editor-in-chief of the “Sharg gadini” magazine,  A. Sultanova succeeded to gather around her famous female writers of that time. She worked in this position until 1929 and then was appointed Deputy People’s Commissar (Minister) of Education of the Azerbaijan SSR. In the following years, A. Sultanova, who held a number of important positions, became a victim of the Bolshevik system, in the creation of which she participated. She was shot in 1937. The same fate befell Gulara Keilya gizi Gadirbeyova, who headed “Sharg gadini”  after Ayna Sultanova. On 8 August 1938, she was convicted for membership in a counter-revolutionary nationalist organization and sent to Siberia for 5 years.

The magazine regularly published articles about women who actively participated in public life, such as Ayna Sultanova, Shafiga Efendizadeh, Medina Khanim Giyasbeyli, Gulara Keilyu gizi Gadirbeyova, Khadija Seyidzadeh, Hokuma Mammadova. The magazine played an important role in the formation of literary and artistic thought, development of culture, emergence of writers and publicists among women. Since the 30s, Mirvarid Dilbazi, Nigar Rafibeyli, Puste Asgarova, Sona Mammadova, Hanimana Alibeyli presented their poems and prose to the readers in “Sharg gadini”. Thus, the magazine was a tribune for these women writers.

In the following years, such writers and poets as Rahima Zeynalova, Habiba Zeynalova, Khalida Hasilova, Kamala Aghayeva, Farida Aliyarbeyli, Alaviya Babayeva, Aziza Jafarzadeh and Shovket Mammadova signed the pages of the magazine.

After Ayna Sultanova and Gulara Koylyu gizi Gadirbeyova, the magazine was headed by famous writers, public figures of that time Hokuma Sultanova, Zahra Kerimova, Barat Kerimova, Zuleikha Aliyeva, Rahima Zeynalova, Shafiga Aghayeva and Khalida Hasilova.

From November 1923 to February 1938, the magazine was published under the name “Sharg gadini”. From January 1930 to October 1939 the magazine was published twice a month.

First woman magazine in Azerbaijan established in 1923 was renamed “Azerbaijan gadini” (“Woman of Azerbaijan”) in 1938.

Recommended literature:

1. Azərbaycan mətbuatı tarixi : dərslik / tərt.-red. A. Şahverdiyev. - Bakı : Təhsil EİM, 2006. - 252 s.
2. Aşırlı, Akif. Azərbaycan mətbuatı tarixi / A. Aşırlı. II hissə : 1920-1990 / elmi red. C. Məmmədli. - Bakı : Elm və təhsil, 2010. - 227 s.
3. Qasımova, Amalya Nəbi qızı. XX əsrin əvvəllərində Şimali Azərbaycan mətbuatında qadın problemləri : 1901-1917 / A. N. Qasımova ; elmi red.: D. B. Seyidzadə, H. N. Həsənov ; AMEA A.A. Bakıxanov adına Tarix İnstitutu. - Bakı : Adiloğlu, 2010. - 168 s.
4. Azərbaycan mətbuat tarixi antologiyası / red. heyəti: Ə. Həsənov, V. Səfərli, Ə. Ə. Amaşov, tərt., elmi red.: Ş. Q. Vəliyev, N. Q. Yaqublu. II cild. - Bakı : Elm və təhsil, 2011. - 440 s.
5. Quliyeva, Qərənfil Dünyamin qızı. Mətbuat - nicat yolu : elmi-publisistik və bədii məqalələr toplusu / Q. D. Quliyeva ; elmi red. Ş. Q. Vəliyev. - Bakı : ADPU nəşriyyatı, 2013. - 291 s.
6. Mətbuat tarixi və publisistika məsələləri / İ. Ə. Həbibbəyli [et al.] ; tərt. A. H. Rüstəmli ; elmi red. İ. Ə. Həbibbəyli. - Bakı : Ozan, 2016. - 184 s.