“She was such a good girl, nobody would have let her stay single for a long time”
“Are not you getting married?”
“No worries; next child will be son”
“The main function of the woman is to born children”
“You were dressed so sexy that it was obvious it would happen!”
“Watch out! The driver is woman”

The problems related with women are very diverse and complicated. Situation is particularly grave in the countries with patriarchal societies where women are treated with stereotypes. Unfortunately Georgia is one of those countries and public views about women completely demonstrate public attitude and feelings.

We observe all forms of violence against women that are common worldwide. They are psychological, physical, sexual and economic violence against women.

One of the main issues raised in the frame of the 16-day campaign this year is early marriages of girls.

Early marriage

“My daughter got married”
“I arranged marriage for my daughter and now she has patron”
“How long are you going to study? Are not you going to get married?”
Early marriage is one of the main obstacles for social integration of young girls that is very actual problem and is related with gender, religious, ethnic or regional problems. A girl, who gets married at early age, losses childhood, right to education and becomes victim of violence.

Like in many countries, early marriages remain unresolved problems in Georgia too. According to the data of the UNFPA, about 14 million girls younger than 18 get married every year in the world; that makes 38 000 per day and 13 in every 30 seconds. According to the same data, Georgia is one of the top countries with early-marriages together with Moldova (with 19%) and Turkey (with 14%). In Georgia 17% of women got married before they turned 18.

An underage girl told a story: “I was compelled to marry 30-years-old man when I was 15. 70% of girls in my village get married before they turn 18. Majority of these marriages happen without their consent. I was compelled to leave school and marry a man who I had seen only several times. My first child was born when I was 16 for what I lost my childhood forever. It is horrific when you move to a strange family and have to live with new people directly from the school desk. In addition to that, all dreams fade away for you; all your future plans and life is associated only with a strange man and children. When you protest marriage, your family members tell you: you are young and do not know what life is. The main responsibility of a woman is giving birth to children and taking care of the family; so you must get married and implement your duties. It is a story of all girls, who got married before they turned 18.”

It is not a rare story. Public Defender’s report also states the same. According to the report, number of early marriages in Georgia is very high. In the first half of 2015 265 marriages were registered in Georgia where at least one member of the couple was 16 – 18 years old.  It is only registered marriages but in reality their number is much higher because early marriages often remain informal. It is proved by high number of underage mothers. The data from 2014 demonstrate the same – 1527 underage mothers were registered in Georgia last year.

“Early marriage violates the right of child to health, education, equality and right to live in the environment free from violence and exploitation. These rights are ensured by the UN Declaration on Human Rights, Convention on the Rights of Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women. Early marriage has significant impact on the individual development, reproductive health, public and social life of a child. In parallel to that, her right to childhood, education and health is breached that ends up with unemployment, economic problems and overestimation of values. Very often it causes problems like: domestic violence, and addiction to various substances (alcohol, psychotropic), divorced families etc,” the Public Defender’s Office reports.

In accordance to the Civil Code of Georgia, marriage is allowed from the age of 18. Underage person could get married only upon the consent of the parents or guardians. Marriage under the age of 16 shall not be registered.
Nowadays, the draft law regulating the marriage of persons under the age of 16 is main topic of discussion. The Parliament of Georgia passed the law through first hearing. In accordance to the law, an underage person will need approval from the court to get married in addition to the parents’ consent.
The author of the bill MP Tamar Kordzaia said: “Right to marriage from the age of 16 to 18 will now be restricted and regulated by the law. After a while early marriages will be prohibited at all. The bill aims to defend interests of underage persons.”

Right to education and reproductive health

A lot of persons cannot enjoy right to reproductive health that is caused by low awareness about sexual life and reproductive health and by low quality services in this field. Population in Georgia has low awareness about this problem. This problem is very actual among youth because they do not have adequate knowledge and very often they have problems because of undesirable pregnancy.

In the world, about 16 million girls give birth to a baby before they turn 18 every year. About 3 million girls make dangerous abortions. According to this statistics, 90% of pregnant girls are citizens of developing countries, who got married at early age. However, majority of them did not have part in this decision – they obeyed decisions of their families.

According to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia in 2011-2014 249 pupils (238 of them girls) left secondary educations before they turned 18. Among them 9 boys and 114 girls left school because of marriage. It is noteworthy that married underage girl can continue education only based on the “consent” of her husband.

Violence against women

“Family problems must stay within the family”
“What did you tell him that he beat you…”
It is very easy to estimate scope and problem of domestic violence if we recall number of women who were killed in 2014 as a result of domestic violence.

Women’s rights are most often breached there where women should feel themselves most protected – in the families. However, often it is very difficult to detect violence facts because victims refrain from disclosing their problems outside the family. Another issue is that police does not adequately react to the facts of domestic violence and do not take lawful measures against the violator.

Every third women (that makes 29%), who has at least once endured physical violence in her life, has never disclosed this fact. Only 5 % of them reported to the police, 3% applied to doctor and 2% applied for legal assistance.

Lawyer Mariam Jobava of the association Hera, who works on the issues of reproductive health and violence, evaluated the violence against women and said: “To fight against violence effectively it is important to admit that we have this problem both inside the family and in the society. We must be aware that main causes of violence against women are gender inequality and start fight against it. Our work should be complex. Awareness raising campaigns must be launched to inform every woman about their rights and make aware of problems.”

Until a woman does not have adequate knowledge and information about her rights, until women’s opinions are not respected during decision-making process, until women are subjected to oppression and unequal treatment in the family and in the working places, until we see essence of the family only in early marriages, until we blame victims in the violence and justify harasser, the problems remain unresolved.

Mariam Chitishvili