OC Media

OC Media

Opinion | It’s time for North Caucasian men to stop trying to put women ‘in their place’

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The most vocal crit­i­cisms of suc­cess­ful women in the Russian North Caucasus often come from abroad. It’s time for these ‘keyboard mujahideen’ — refugees from Chechnya, Daghestan, and Ingushetia living in western countries — to realise that following tradition and religion need not preclude an active, empowered role for women in society. [Read more…]

Voice | The bitterness of the Kvankhidatli salt — the women salt miners of Daghestan

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(Magomed Gadzhidadayev/Daptar)

The women of Kvankhi­datli, a village in the mountains of south-west Daghestan, are known as the people who mine salt. The women recall gathering sand by hand to dissolve the salt since the beginning of the 20th century but say the tradition is now dying out. [Read more…]

Georgian Dream–backed sexual harassment bill put before parliament

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A 2017 ‘Take Back the Night’ rally demanding leg­is­la­tion against sexual harass­ment (Dato Parulava / OC Media)

Sexual harass­ment in public and at work will become an admin­is­tra­tive offence in Georgia if a new bill initiated by the Parliament’s Gender Equality Council is passed. [Read more…]

To change the system from within or without — the dilemma for feminists in ‘New Armenia’

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Maria Kara­petyan (Anahit of Erebuni)

As more and more women choose to enter politics in rev­o­lu­tion­ary ‘New Armenia’, a debate is raging within the country’s feminist circles: how best to transform Armenia's patri­ar­chal systems — from within or without. [Read more…]

Voices of Georgian emigrants — ‘They treated us like dogs’

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(/Getty images)

Since the 1990s, thousands of Georgians have left home in search of oppor­tu­ni­ties abroad, pushed out by food poverty, debts, unem­ploy­ment, or to escape violence in the family. Below are stories from three women who braved landmines, hidden con­tain­ers, and frozen seas in search for a better future in Greece. [Read more…]

‘If she goes out — her relatives will kill her’

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‘A woman should know her place. A woman should show love to us all. A woman is property, and she belongs to a man. If a woman walks around naked, or if she does not behave properly, she answers to her husband, her father, and her brother. According to our customs, if a woman goes out too freely, her relatives will kill her… That’s how it happens. A brother kills his sister, a husband kills his wife… But as President, I cannot allow them to be killed. So, women shouldn’t wear shorts.’ [Read more…]

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