Mehriban Alieva

Mehriban Arif gizi Aliyeva (; , ; born 26 August 1964) is an Azerbaijani politician and physician who is the vice president and First Lady of Azerbaijan. She is married to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan. Aliyev created the position of vice president in 2017 and appointed his wife to the position. Early life, family and marriage Mehriban Aliyeva (born Pashayeva) was born in Baku, and is from a family described in leaked US Embassy cables as "the single most powerful family in Azerbaijan." Her grandfather was the writer Mir Jalal Pashayev, an Iranian Azerbaijani born in Iran. Her uncle Hafiz Pashayev was Azerbaijan's first Ambassador to the United States. Aliyeva's father Arif Pashayev is Rector of the National Aviation Academy in Baku, and her mother, Aida Imanguliyeva (1939–1992) was a philologist and Arabist, daughter of the journalist and pedagogue Nasir Imanguliyev. Mehriban Aliyeva married Ilham Aliyev, the son of Heydar Aliyev, in Baku on 22 December 1983. The Aliyevs have two daughters, Leyla (born 3 July 1984) and Arzu (born 23 January 1989) and a son Heydar (born 2 August 1997). Leyla is the editor of Baku magazine, published by Azerbaijani Russian businessman Aras Agalarov, and was married to his son Emin Agalarov.