forced marriage

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Children's Rights

Georgian government urged to crack down on forced marriages after ‘16-year-old rape victim kidnapped again’

by OC Media

•3 min read

Human rights groups have called on the Georgian government to strengthen measures against forced and early marriages after a girl who was raped when she was 14 years old was kidnapped again two years later by her alleged rapist. The Equality Coalition, a group of prominent Georgian rights groups, said in a statement that the 14-year-old girl was kidnapped by several people and then raped by a 24-year-old man in December 2015 in Sagarejo Municipality, in Georgia’s eastern Kakheti Region. T

Azerbaijan

Georgia’s early marriages: destinies blackened in white dresses

by Gulnur Kazimova

•11 min read

Despite tightening laws against early marriages in Georgia, among the country’s ethnic Azerbaijani population, they remain common. The results of such marriages are often tragic, with young girls leaving education, becoming victims of domestic violence, or in some cases, dying. ‘I lost the game of life the day I was born. When I was born, my parents promised me as a future wife to another family. I was raised hearing about it, and when I turned 15, I got married. Nobody asked my opinion’

bride kidnapping

Girl abducted for marriage returned home in southern Georgia

by OC Media

•2 min read

A 20-year-old girl abducted for marriage has been returned to her parents’ house. The girl was abducted from the courtyard of her house in a village in Bolnisi Municipality, in Georgia’s southern Kvemo Kartli Region, on 10 January. An investigation has been launched for ‘illegal deprivation of liberty’, which is punishable by up to four years in prison. The alleged abductor has been identified, according to local community radio station Radio Marneuli, which covers Kvemo Kartli regio

bride kidnapping

[Voice from Chechnya] Twenty years with a kidnapper

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•5 min read

‘My family was destroyed together with what used to be Chechnya. My husband and I argued endlessly’. Love, abduction, war, and divorce — a Chechen woman told her story to Daptar. ‘My father was a shepherd in the Rostov Oblast. We were born there, all eight siblings. I had a boyfriend in high school. I thought only about him and he — about me. I promised to marry him, but first I wanted to graduate from the faculty of law. He agreed. We promised each other that we would marry only each ot

abuse

[Voice from Kvemo Kartli] Women of Georgia — Venera Martkoplishvili, 63, Gardabani

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•7 min read

‘Women in Georgia very often lack a voice of their own. Their opinions, feelings, dreams, aspirations, and achievements can be conveyed by others, often the men around them. The Women in Georgia project gives a voice to these women, allowing them to tell their own stories — in their own words. The project collected 150 distinct stories from women throughout the country. OC Media brings you a selection of these stories, translated into English and Russian. Below, in her own words, Venera Martkopl

Children

Child marriage continues unabated in Georgia’s Azerbaijani communities

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•4 min read

Child marriages are commonplace in Georgia’s Azerbaijani communities. Despite tough new laws prohibiting the practice, young girls continue to have their right to education denied to them and their futures decided between their families and potential suitors. It was more than five years ago that her father unexpectedly came to school to pick up Aisha, 15, in the middle of a lesson. Her future husband’s family awaited her at home. Aisha didn’t know her future husband or his family. ‘I wa