Mehriban Aliyeva
Mehriban Arif qizi Aliyeva (born 1964, Baku) is a member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, wife of the current president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Aliyeva married Ilham in 1984. They have two daughters, Leyla and Arzu, and one son, Heydar. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, chair of numerous charitable and cultural organizations. She established the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, which focuses on the personality cult of the former dictator as a way to keep his son in power.
Mehriban Aliyeva (née
Pashayeva) was born into a family of scholars. Her father, Arif Pashayev
is a Physics-Mathematics Ph.D. Her mother, Aida Imanguliyeva (†1992)
was a philologist and arabist. In 1982, Mehriban Aliyeva graduated from
Secondary School in Baku earning a gold medal. A few months later she
was admitted to the Azerbaijan Medical University and later continued
her studies at the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, from where she graduated
in 1988.
She likes to project a glamorous image, in the best style of
a 1960s femme fatale, and is often used as the image of the Aliyev dynasty
both
for domestic and international audiences. Her philanthropic work is also
emphasized by the state propaganda.
In 2004, she became a member of the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP). During parliamentary elections in 2005, she was elected to the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, winning 92 percent of the vote in her hometown district, near Baku. Human Rights Watch expressed concern about widespread intimidation of opposition supporters, saying that the elections could not be free or fair under such conditions.
Aliyeva, who dresses in the latest fashions from Europe, is fast becoming an important player in the Byzantine world of Azeri politics, where powerful pro-government clans compete for a slice of the country's burgeoning oil wealth. Some already see Aliyeva, as carving out a role for herself independent of her husband, who has strived to shake off a playboy image since coming to power in 2003.
Some talk of Aliyeva being a future parliament speaker or heading the country's delegation to the Council of Europe. A few even say she could eventually take over as president to continue the Aliyev family dynasty.