Georgian Women for Their Rights

Women are not satisfied with their own existence in Georgia. Some of them complain for being still associated with the house-work. They do not have right to be involved in decision-making process, while others speak even about harassment.

Although the role of the women has been increasing in the public life for the last ten years, it is not the required result. Though, it is clear that years ago women did not involve the politics at all. In 1998, the involvement of women in the elections has become obvious and their participation reached 14 %. However, comparing with the 90th of the last century their participation in political life has considerably decreased: in 2002 it amounted 12% in the self-governmental election and in 2006 - 11, 5 %.

Though, several districts (like Gurjaani, Tighvis Temi, Ninotsminda, Vani, Chiatura and Batumi) have no women in local governments. Although many international organizations are particularly interested to encourage the involvement of Georgian women into local governance, the result is not satisfactory yet.

Tina Ilsen, advisor in gender issues to the Warsaw Bureau of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, mentioned that there is much work to do in Georgia. "From the next year, our main target will be gender and governance."

Reet Laia, expert for the Women and Gender Issues, observes the same problem among Georgian women. She said that "Our next development and goal will be to empowering the women's governance. We will do our best to find leader women."
Georgian women speak about the attitude towards them, which really exists in Georgia. Tamar Goginashvili, member of the Dusheti District Administrative Board, said that the activating process of the women in Georgia is very slow. "If we compare elections of 1999-2002 to the present one, we will notice the increased number of the women participants in it. However, it is not satisfactory. According to our traditions, the women always stood besides the men in their struggle. Thus, it is essential to encourage the women to regain their traditional place in the society. On the basis of Georgian reality, the transfer of a woman from the position of a housewife to a politician, particularly in the regions, turned out very difficult to achieve. It is also connected with serious risk, because being a politician demands much time from the women and they cannot pay proper attention to their families"

According to the respondent, the main problem in Dusheti District is that women are not socially protected. "I am particularly concerned regarding the immigration problem. If you compare the immigration level of men with the one of the women in Dusheti District, the number of the immigrated women is higher. I know that they were forced to go abroad because of hard economic life and the need to keep their families. The outcome is that children are left without mothers and men - without their wives. Material welfare cannot replace the feeling of the maternal love. Every village in Dusheti district has certain number of immigrated women. Those who have immigrated do not return home any more."

Another problem is the discrimination against women. They cannot take care of themselves. "It is the most characteristic problem for our district. You know that the industry is degraded in the region and only small farms exist here. Mostly women are employed there and they look after cattle, cultivate land and get harvest. Thus, they have no time to look after themselves. Despite all these problems, we should do our best to help them, to encourage them", said the respondent.

The problems for women are the same in Racha-Lechkhumi and Zemo Svaneti districts. In Racha -Lechkhumi, the women are associated with the house-work only. "There are very many urgent problems in Georgia. One of them is the old fashioned mentality what empowers only the men to make decisions. Woman is considered to be a person to do only a house work," said the trainer for Women's Rights and Gender Issues at the OSCE, Fati Kemoklidze. She represents the OSCE in Racha-Lechkhumi and Lower Svaneti districts.

The goal of her job in the districts is to encourage the women's rights and activities.  However, she is not satisfied with the results yet. It did not turn out so easy to lead the women out from their families and make them involved in active social life. "Implementation of our activities was particularly difficult in the villages of the mountainous regions. The simple reason for that was their hard work in the village. The women do not have even the minimal living conditions there. Despite that, some leader women were singled out. They can do many and very useful things. When we started our meetings, they all spoke only about problems and they asked us to resolve those problems. These women could not imagine that they could do it themselves."

According to Kemoklidze, one of the main problems is poor social-economic conditions. As a result the women cannot look after themselves and thus, they are forced to leave for abroad to keep their families.

Nino Sokhadze, member of the Ambrolauri Administrative Board (from the Republican Party) and the head of one of the Non-governmental Organizations for Women, spoke about the problems dealing with the women politicians. She said that "A woman has many problems, particularly in politics. Elections of the local government were good example to prove the fact. Our organization put up women candidates in every majority constituency in the elections. They were seriously oppressed and made to cancel their candidates. Mostly their husbands, who worked in the public offices, were oppressed. As a result those women canceled their candidates."

The respondent recalls a funny occasion.  "The active work to encourage the women to involve the public activities lasted three years. Initially, we had few supporters among them and very often they were accompanied by their husbands. The men wondered what their wives were going to do. Thus, our work was hard enough. When we explained that the woman was to be not only a servant in a family but she also could receive good education; finally husbands started to get used to the idea. Even now, this ice is gradually melting."

Single mothers create another category in Georgia. The government aids them with five lari a month. Maia Kuprava, the head of the "Association for Single Mothers" said in her conversation with the Human Rights Centre, that the women of this category are not paid attention at all.

She said that, "there is no governmental policy regarding the problem.  Despite the fact, that single women are one of the priorities of the country, very little attention is paid to them. The problem is that the state considers that single mothers are only those who have children out of wedlock. Even non-governmental organization can assist them properly. We can provide them only with free legal aid."

If we observe the activity of the women in the whole world, we will see that there are countries where the politic is mainly lead by women. However, there are also countries, where there are no women in politics, at all. For example, there are 604 women in the Chinese Parliament, 219 women are in the Parliament of Cuba, 195 are in German Parliament, 165 in Swiss Parliament, 136 in Vietnamese Parliament, 0 in the Parliament of the Emirates; 0-in Arabian Republic, 0-in Kyrgyz and one in New Guinea.

Eka Gulua