Pankisi Valley
The last women performing Zikr in Pankisi — Georgia’s sacred Sufi chants edge toward silence
In Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, a sacred Sufi ritual endures — led by elderly women, the chants may soon fall silent with no one left to follow.
Tamuna Chkareuli
Tamuna is a freelance journalist and a professional photographer. With a keen interest in social issues, she focuses on labour rights and disability and gender-related problems.
Pankisi Valley
Inside the Pankisi brewery making traditional Chechen fruit-based non-alcoholic beer
Kisturi Draft reimagines a time-honoured tradition in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley — non-alcoholic rosehip and hawthorn berry ‘beer’.
Evolution Gaming
Young Georgian Unions on a winning streak
Unionising is seen as unappealing and even dangerous by many Georgians, but some new public and private unions are gaining support, taking on their employers — and winning. For decades, Georgia’s labour unions have been a mostly unsuccessful endeavour. While big enterprises are plagued by company-dominated unions or take revenge against unionised workers, 29% of the workforce is informally employed and 21% unemployed. With two of Georgia’s largest employment sectors — hospitality and cons
Feature Stories
Inside Georgia’s textile industry: Violence
Two years after OC Media went undercover at a Tbilisi factory, a former worker reached out with a harrowing story of psychological and physical abuse. When 46-year-old Eleonora took the job at a Eurotex-managed textile factory in Tbilisi, Georgia she was excited. She didn’t think that only a few years later, in this very factory, her life would flash before her eyes as a pair of hands tightened around her neck. Eleonora Ter-Poghosyan was promoted to quality control within a year of working
COVID-19
In Pictures | Forgotten by the highway
From sweetbread in Surami to hammocks in Khashuri, many settlements along Georgia’s E60 east-west highway are known for their unique crafts — now the modernisation of the E60 is threatening to turn them into ghost towns. Georgia’s E60 highway, the country’s main east-west artery, is undergoing a radical transformation. A new modernisation project is building new bypasses, overpasses, and tunnels. While this is surely welcomed by the drivers who will save precious on their drive through
COVID-19
In Pictures | Bakuriani’s corona freeze
With the pandemic, life in Bakuriani has come to a standstill. Now, residents of the popular ski resort town fear the pandemic will deal a fatal economic blow to their livelihoods. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began Bakuriani has fallen under a deep economic freeze. Ski lifts have stood still for months, and since the latest lockdown, all hotels are closed until January at the very least. For a ski-resort town like Bakuriani, the lockdown means a cancellation of the most profitable season a
