photos by Gular Abbasova





Nine years ago, Nurana was on the brink of a happy life. She had just found out she was pregnant and, while her arranged marriage to a cousin was not perfect, her life seemed to be taking shape.

Then her in-laws found out she was carrying a girl. After that, she says, her life “became hell”.

Nurana, 31, says her mother-in-law, her mother's sister, was incensed when Nurana decided not to get an abortion.

“She pushed her son to fight with me…Knowing that I would give birth to a girl, he turned his back on me. He didn’t speak to me for days. I asked what I had done wrong. Frowning he replied to me 'I don’t want to have a baby girl',”she says.

Nurana held her ground, however, and had the baby. For a while, things seemed to calm down at home, especially when the family learned she was pregnant again.

But when they found out the baby was once again a girl, Nurana started to feel even more pressure to have an abortion.

Soon she felt she had to choose between her unborn daughter and her marriage. She decided to get a divorce, even though her own family was pressuring her to give in to her in-laws.