 In 1919, during Georgia's brief independence, 34-year-old Parikhanim Sofiyeva, an Azeri woman from the village of Karajalari near Karaiazi, won the parliament election in her constituency, becoming the first democratically elected Muslim woman in the history of the Caucasus and one of only five Georgian female MPs at the time.Under Soviet rule, Azeris constituted the third largest ethnic minority in the country (after Armenians and Russians), but their numbers grew constantly due to a high birth rate, almost twice as high as for ethnic Georgians as of 1989, as well as a low rate of immigration.Due to this, the numbers of Azeris rose to make them Georgia's largest minority ethnic group by 2002.