Mariam Chikovani

A Woman’s Lot – challenging gender stereotypes one story at a time.

“A woman’s most important role is to keep home in order” say majority of respondents (both women and men) interviewed for the National Study on Violence Against women in 2017. Such public response is predictable in a country where violence against women is tolerated and normalized, and where media outlets regularly report femicide cases. Changing gender stereotypes in this setting is a tough endeavor, yet this is exactly what Mariam Chikovani, a Civic Leadership Program Participant from 2018, is set out to do.

Mariam is passionate about empowering girls and women. Unfazed by juggling multiple commitments, Mariam manages to combine fulltime work, training engagements, academic studies and running a newly established nonprofit – Training, Education and Development Center. Mariam’s interest in women’s rights is not accidental – as a trainer she observed the effects of gender stereotypes and sexism widespread in many rural communities while working with girls and young women: “Sometimes it feels like girls don’t have dreams, they think their only option is to get married, raise kids as stay-at-home mothers and caregivers, fully dependent on their husbands for financial support. They don’t think they have the power or right to do something different, to be someone but a dutiful housewife” she tells us. These are attitudes Mariam wants to challenge and change: “we want to show young girls, young women that they have power, they have rights and they can be independent… there are extraordinary, strong women in villages, in rural communities that can be role models for these girls; these women can share their stories of resilience, their stories of success, and that’s how we decided to start”.

Mariam and Tamar Kapanadze, a friend and Civic Leadership program co-participant, started with a “Stories for Change” project for girls in Sartichala, Gardabani funded by Human Rights House Tbilisi. Project participants had an opportunity to learn about women’s rights, as well as discover and tell stories of inspiring women from their communities. According to Mariam Civic Leadership program was instrumental in improving her project writing and campaigning skills “Civic Leadership program gave me practical, technical information that I needed for proposal writing as well as campaigning in my community. I wanted to support girls and young women to become more resilient, more self-assured, ready to realize their potential and I needed to become better at implementing projects that supported this cause. I actually wrote and obtained funding for my project from the Human Rights House Tbilisi after your Civic Leadership program.”

Mariam and her friends plan to continue working on women’s issues, their next project “Once Upon A Time Beyond the Glass” focuses on widespread but often neglected barriers faced by working women in Georgia and Belarus. This project too is funded by the Human Rights House Tbilisi and will take place in Tbilisi and Minsk, Belarus during years 2019-2020.

Civic Leadership program supports community leaders and active citizens like Mariam throughout Georgia. Civic Leadership Program is developed and carried out by CTC under Georgia Civil Society Development Initiative