Mediko Machalikashvili. Photo: Sopho Aptsiauri / Women of Georgia
Mediko Machalikashvili, 46, from Duisi, Pankisi Valley, speaks of being married too young, losing a husband and the hardships of being a widow in a conservative society. [Read more…]
Keti Tomeishvili (Nina Baidauri / Women of Georgia)
‘I was 29 when I had to emigrate and returned 14 years later. My sister was very young when she was diagnosed with an aneurysm. The doctors told her her chances of survival were only 2%, but I really wanted even this tiny chance.’ [Read more…]
Sopio Jeterishvili (Salome Sagharadze /Women of Georgia)
‘I think that if a person really wants to do something, if it’s in their soul, they can do it. I’ve wanted to be independent since I was a child. I made several attempts at it. I escaped from home a few times. I don’t know why but since very early childhood, when I was so little, I already knew I didn’t want to live in that house, where they don’t love you and you don’t love them.’ [Read more…]
Zviad Devdariani (GPB)
Zviad Devdariani, the former head of Georgian non-governmental organisation CiDA, has said he will sue eight women for ‘violating his honour and dignity’. Devdariani has faced allegations of sexual harassment or sexual assault from at least 10 women. [Read more…]
Rusudan Chelidze (Nino Baidauri / Women of Georgia)
‘You cannot really call what we went through back then childhood. There were only two of us. We had no one else out there in the whole world.’ [Read more…]
(Left) Zviad Devdariani (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
Zviad Devdariani, the former head of Georgian non-governmental organisation CIDA who is facing allegations of sexual harassment from at least 10 women, has announced he will sue his accusers for ‘violating his and his family’s dignity’. On Tuesday, Devdariani held a press briefing with his lawyer where he vowed to pursue legal means to ‘protect his dignity’, as he claimed the ‘court of Facebook’ had already found him guilty. [Read more…]
Zviad Devdariani (CiDA)
The head of a prominent Georgian non-governmental organisation and an outspoken supporter of women’s rights has been accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault by at least ten women. Allegations against Zviad Devdariani, executive director of the Civil Development Agency (CiDA), emerged after he was nominated for a spot on the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s Board of Trustees. [Read more…]
Salome Zandukeli (Nino Baidauri /Wome of Georgia)
‘It happened two years ago, on 20 February 2016. I had just started a new job. I was also teaching school children English and maths, which is why I had to commute from Kavtaradze Street to Sololaki. Late in the evenings and at about midnight I would come back home to Dighomi. That day I decided to walk from the metro home, as I didn’t want to pay for a taxi. I just thought I could walk, as I wasn’t afraid. I was born and grew up here.’ [Read more…]
Protest for the rights of transgender women. (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Feminist group the Georgian Women’s Movement marked International Women’s Day on 8 March protesting for the rights of transgender women. They were met by a homophobic counter rally who threw eggs and chanted ‘shame’. [Read more…]
(/OC Media)
Women across the South Caucasus share many of the same experiences; from Baku to Yerevan to Tbilisi, and in the smaller settlements in between, women learn from a young age to be wary of men. Inappropriate comments and propositions from strangers, groping, and worse are something women in the Caucasus are often forced to contend with, and while the problems seem universal, protections under the law are also universally lacking. [Read more…]
