Founding feminist network to promote women's community empowerment in Highland Adjara [February 2020 - July 2020]

(Closed project) The goal of the project proposed by the organization "Identoba Youth" is to promote the rights and opportunities of women and girls living in highland Adjara, to empower women and overcome the main gender problems identified in this region. These issues include domestic violence against women, sexual harassment and early marriage of girls.

The project mainly included three municipal units of Upper Adjara - Keda, Shuakhevi and Khulo. Despite statistical scarcity on women's rights from the region, overall gender statistics along with existing facts given below to allow us to have a conclusion about women's and young girls conditions living in mountainous Adjara.

Although Adjara is the second largest Muslim region in Georgia, the Muslim community here is continuously experiencing the problem of involvement in the governing area. According to the stereotype spread in the region, all Georgians should also be Orthodox Christians. Caucasus House 2016 Survey "Islam in Georgia: Politics and Integration" reflect the prejudices against the Islamic community in the Adjara region and their minimal involvement in the governance of the region.

Thus, geographical features, religious tensions and low levels of education create a favourable environment for the persistence and strengthening of gender inequality in the region. Given this socio-cultural and religious context, the main goals of the project, to change the current situation of women, were:

1.         Raising awareness about domestic violence, early marriage and sexual harassment; informing participants about legislative regulations on domestic violence, early marriage and sexual harassment as well as about limitations and weaknesses of regulatory approaches

2.         Bringing members of the gender equality councils closer to the population

3.         Supporting the use of institutionalized mechanisms for gender equality

4.         Identifying key challenges and their differing characteristics about gender equality, faced by women living in Highlands Adjara

5.         Creating video contents about domestic violence, sexual harassment and early marriage with the participation of women living in Highland Adjara 

6.         Deepening critical understanding of current socio-economic reality from a gender perspective