Hänifä Mälikova-Abayeva

Hanifa Malikova was one of the first Muslim women in the Caucasus to receive secular education. She later married Hasan bey Zardabi, Azerbaijani journalist and intellectual, and actively participated in the publication of the first Azerbaijani language newspaper Akinchi alongside him between 1875 and 1877. Hanifa was also one of the first female educators in Azerbaijan; she worked at the Russian-Muslim girls' school in Baku and became the first principal of the Empress Alexandra Russian Muslim Boarding School for Girls.