00:00I felt the mountains were calling me before Everest and even after it.
00:05I felt I had to go to understand what they wanted to tell me.
00:15Once, I met a document from Nepal Tourism Agency,
00:19and I saw there in one column written the names of the countries,
00:23in another column the number of the women and the men.
00:25And then every time I check and I see Azerbaijan women, just the number shows zero.
00:32And every year I check and it repeats.
00:35Then I ask myself, why there is not a woman from Azerbaijan who will go and change this number?
00:41And then the thought came to me and I questioned myself,
00:44can you go and change this number zero to one?
00:47And I say, yes. So it became my life mission.
00:50And in 2025, on the 15th of May, I changed this number.
00:57I made zero, one, and becoming the first Azerbaijani alpinist who did Everest.
01:04Every time I reached a summit, instead of feeling this is enough, I felt I'm just beginning.
01:11As I moved higher from 4,000 meters to 5,000, then 6,000, new questions appeared.
01:19How will I feel at this height?
01:21What will change inside me at 7,000 meters?
01:24What will be in my heart and in my mind when I stand at the top of the world?
01:29When I took the flag of Azerbaijan out of my backpack, I was wearing many layers of gloves
01:35and I couldn't really feel it with my hands, but I held it very tightly.
01:41It was extremely windy and I was afraid that I would lose it.
01:45I raised it higher directly in front of my eyes.
01:48That was the moment my heart started to beat faster and tears, now it's coming to my eyes.
01:56And for the first time in my life, at the top of the world, I saw my flag so clearly.
02:01And I thought, oh my goodness, how beautiful our flag is.
02:05Everest was my mission.
02:07I had prepared for it for years.
02:10But when I returned to the base camp, after the summit, I faced an unexpected moment.
02:16I had to decide whether I would also climb Lhosa, the fourth highest mountain in the world.
02:22This was never part of my plan, but I realized I couldn't ignore that calling.
02:29I now see Everest and Lhosa as a kind of encyclopedia of life.
02:33And those chapters are not finished yet.
02:35I feel a responsibility to continue sharing them.
02:39My journey showed that Azerbaijan can be strong, ambitious, nurturing and brave at the same time.
02:46In this way, I become a bridge between people and the mountains.
02:50And for me, that is a deep, meaningful and ever-evolving mission.
Comments