“I want to tell everyone that it is impossible to make change happen and achieve equality without people’s active involvement, especially when the state refuses to do so,” – says Samira Bayramova, Azerbaijani human right’s defender. In February 2022 she protested the opening of an office of Alt-info, a violent pro-Russian group. However, her fight with destructive forces for equality, ethnical integration, women’s right and against child marriage, started a very long time ago.
Human rights as a part of her nature – the beginning of her activism
She became an activist in 2009. As she says, the most important issues for her at the time were child marriage, forced marriage and kidnapping. This was followed by thinking about women’s rights, better-evaluating the damaging influence of ethnic inequality, and, in general, working tirelessly for human rights.
“I became an activist in 2009. The reason for this was that there was so much inequality around me, directed both at me and at others, and I wanted to change something. Another reason was the influence of ongoing internal processes – for some people it is in their nature to be unable to stand by as injustice occurs. That’s why this process occurred naturally in me and my views changed throughout time. The first issue that caught my attention was the violation of children’s rights: child marriage, violence, forced marriage and bride kidnapping, which isn’t just children and women’s rights issue, but also closely related to ethnical minorities. I started activism in an ethnically Azerbaijani-populated region. Education and experience made me better aware of how many problems there were around me. To the question: why did I become a human right’s defender? – I can’t think of an answer. It happened independently of me. I saw problems, I wanted to say something and I tried to ignore them, but I felt an obligation that all of us have, so I decided to take action.
I started working in Kvemo Kartli, There, people wouldn’t talk about the damaging consequences of child marriage, it was considered to be a shameful topic. That’s why I was often attacked when I tried to talk about it. They asked rhetorical questions: didn’t you grow up in a family? When you went to university, did they teach you to fight traditions there? And many others… It was as if my family was supposed to teach me to talk about topics that were considered shameful. Child marriage was practically seen as a part of the culture and going against it was perceived as an attack on traditions and private lives. I worked with children, teachers, women and men – I taught trainings, held meetings, went to various schools. I’ve been to nearly every school in the region in the past 13-14 years. I’ve held over 300 meetings, the purpose of which was to increase awareness. I met with both Georgians and Azerbaijanis, because this is a shared problem.
We held meetings, told women that they have to be more active and involved in the process of change, but there are no real possibilities for this. I planned meetings in different villages in which people were mainly farmers, working in the fields, receiving extremely low wages, so working for them was always a top priority. Because of this, our meetings place often changed according to the seasons – in winters I went to greenhouses, at other times – open spaces, fields. This was comfortable for them and it helped them see that we were interested in their needs, challenges. They saw how important it was to be informed and talk about their problems, search for solutions.
Men have a lot of opportunities for socializing – meetings in various parts of the village, working together. They are much more socialized and it is easier to talk to them about some topics. However, women better understand the needs in place, and they discuss ways to find solutions argumentatively, because many of the problems are a part of their everyday lives, it’s their experience. Women know much better what kind of problems are caused by water supply deficiencies, for example. This affects their household work, therefore, they think about these challenges on a daily basis.”
At first, she was alone in her activism. As she recalls, people weren’t really interested in gender-related issues back then. Many of them didn’t even know the meaning of the word. While many companions gave up at the initial state because they didn’t want to face all of the difficulties.
“I started my human rights work alone, no one cared about gender and equality issues. When they saw just how much resistance there was, they could not make that decision. Later on, I started working with various community organizations, because my individual resource was not enough to solve this problem. There was need for advocacy, juridical help. Often local activists would help me out when there was a threat of a dispute and I was alone in it. People saw, that when you’re an activist, it’s much harder to search for a job, make connections, so many of them gave it up. People would come and it seemed as if they were involved in this work, but, in the most crucial moments – those in which you need more energy, facing the risks, they would leave. I would organize a meeting and by the time it was time to come – no one would show up. Later they would say that they were scared, or that they didn’t see a problem, or it was simply too hard for them. This didn’t affect me too much. I understood that not everyone has it in them, it’s hard to find balance between personal and social problems.”
A state that failed to prioritize caring for people
When talking about the need for equality, we also mentioned past experiences. According to Samira, the state has been failing to cater to people’s social needs since 90ies. This has brought us to an even worse situation. Now women that have private lives are criticized for it. Also, existing in an environment in which people can spread information so easily, women’s activism is even more challenging.
“From what I’ve seen, there used to be more equality in the pest, but less freedom. In the 90ies, when the economic collapse forced people to reevaluate their priorities, education, equality and self-development became secondary, as survival was the main thing. That’s why we failed to become a state in which protecting individuals, taking care of their health, supporting development, and providing education would be a priority. This, in turn, affected equality, which contradicts democracy. We have neglected social security. In a broader sense, there are active women in politics, but their role as decision-makers is still superficial, women’s voices need to be heard much more powerfully. But it is much more important for people not to just be common policy makers, their individual opinions should be heard. Now especially, there is much more at stake, because our lives are a topic of discussion and the society doesn’t consider men’s lives to be something to be degraded about, unlike women. This is a dangerous situation that makes it more difficult to be in an active role – women that have private lives are considered remorseful.”
“Samira’s thing”, which is equally important to everyone
She has not given up on human rights despite threats, constant attempts to tarnish her reputation, and confrontations with local authorities. On the contrary, she started working not only on the issues of equality, but also looking for solutions to various social needs. Probably this was the thing that helped her connect with the population. They realized that there are many things in common between human rights defenders and the community.
“10 years ago “gender” was an unfamiliar word to many, while child marriage was not a topic for discussion at all. At the initial stage of my work child marriage and gender issues were also referred to as “Samira’s thing”. On social media too, when covering different topics, these words were often used. This isn’t a “Samira thing”, this is everyone’s problem, which isn’t identified by just me.
I’ve noticed that the tendency has been changing. They realized that this isn’t a part of religion, culture or mentality. At first when we would go to a family with the police, all the relatives, neighbors would get involved. Because of this my relationship with many relatives, local authorities and acquaintances was ruined. Threats were also common – people would call me, text me, sometimes even message me from fake accounts on social media. They would curse at me and call on people to not let me into their village because I was trying to ruin their culture. Local authorities despised it when I went to their villages. I talked about child marriage and with that, I often connected it to many problems of the locals, such as water supply issues.
People often told me that their voice was never heard by the authorities and they asked me for help. We sometimes went live when I was meeting with various communities, which always brought on hatred. The self-government often did not even consider my application, did not pay attention to it, did not respond to threatening statements. I was told that they couldn’t see anything dangerous, police didn’t actually protect us. While they would call me to investigate why I posted some things on Facebook, asking me so many questions about it.
Representatives of the media and various non-governmental organizations became more interested. They came and researched various issues, which was also organized by me.
I talked about the inaction of local-self-government, I opposed radical groups by talking about equality, religious rights, freedom, the need for equal opportunities, which bothered many.
I had to deal with it on many different levels: with the police, the government, the people, religious groups, as well as local NGOs whose members did not recognize equality policy.
Organizations like these are funded by the states whose interests these groups are pursuing, and they are directly opposed to the policy of internal integration that is the goal of me and my colleagues. Surveillance and tracking while going to meetings in the villages was very common.”
How does the state help to empower women who were left alone at a young age?
Samira Bayramova tells me that one of the main challenges is still the improper involvement of the state, which might result in the fact that human rights activists’ efforts will be in vain. Samira asks the question – how does the state help to empower women who were left alone at a young age? The answer to this question is: practically, nothing.
“The cases of child marriage still happen the way they used to. The most important thing is that people now realize that it’s a problem, punishable by law, and it’s not a part of culture and religion. Teens can also understand that premature marriage can be problematic for their physical and mental health, for their future. The work of NGOs is crucial in this direction, but the involvement of the State is even more important. We can work on increasing awareness and to apply to law enforcement agencies regarding specific cases, but we the state’s role is always a big part of it. This is a large-scale problem, which includes the police work, proper conduct of trial, educational initiatives. If the state is not willing to change things, nothing will ever be done, we can say that our work will also be wasted.
Another problem is holding counseling sessions for women victims of domestic violence, child marriages. For example, there is a service center in Rustavi. In order to get there from Dmanisi, you have to travel 200 km. The issue of accommodation is also problematic. The housing is often overcrowded, in addition to the challenge of economic empowerment of women, which is especially difficult.
Divorce is followed by problems with property division, alimony. Often people get payed in cash instead of bank transfer payments, so this creates additional challenges for the women. This results in many female domestic abuse victims to stay in the given environment, as they cannot return to their own families either.
Let’s say, there was a child marriage and the girl refuses to live in that family, so she moves to a shelter for a while. After this time, what does the state do to socialize this person? The society is also often not ready to receive a divorced woman – there is no school for her, no community, no system that will help her establish herself. Mistreatment of such individuals is often considered normal.
There were specific cases of domestic violence when a man could not be charged alimony because he was receiving his salary in cash. The house in which they lived was registered on the man’s father’s name and the woman could not claim the share. At such times, women have to basically start building everything from scratch. Raising awareness is good, but when law enforcement is a problem and we have, in fact, dysfunctional laws, a person is left without any help or support. When other victims see that the person, who was going through the same thing, encountered so many challenged, they fail to make the same decision – they do not go to court, because they are hopeless. Hearing of others failed attempts leads a person to believe that it will be the same in their case. They think that if they have to suffer anyway, it’s better to at least have shelter and food, so they stay in that environment.
The issue of domestic violence is much more acute in regions, because it is much harder for service organizations to work there. That’s why we need free kindergartens, good schools, people should be taught sex ED class, how could this be bad?! There should be trainings, people must learn from a young age what is what. The school should provide an equal environment, in which people won’t feel superior. Everyone should have the right to get quality education.”
What activism lacks and the young people who have become resource-creators
Samira tells me that the situation is changing for the better, many more organizations are working on the issue of equality and integration. However, she believes that in the part of practical work that is necessary to bring about change, we have a great lack of resources.
“Many organizations are now working on equality and gender issues and many young people are involved in the process, but the activism for them people is still based on social networks. But practical work, involvement in the advocacy process requires much more effective steps.”
It is very important to raise your voice on social networks, to raise various issues, to raise awareness, but we have problems. We know the essence of the problem, we also know the ways in which the problem should be solved and what happens next? We need practical work to be able to overcome the challenges and at this time we no longer have the resources. In my opinion, the main practical work is to take responsibility, change requires more effort.
Many students, when they realized that there was a problem with access to resources, became the creators of these resources themselves. They have opened community centers in their homes, where they teach English, Georgian, painting, and cover some parts of non-formal education. This is a very good process because in many villages there is no public transport and children have no connection with the city, others cannot socialize, this is compounded by the challenges of the pandemic and, it can be said that young-adults are isolated, so community centers play a special role.
For housewives who have to stay at home all day and are unable to go out, opportunities must be created that will help them become economically stronger and socialize, because without it you cannot develop. When a person has serious financial problems, they can neither study nor have time to take care of personal development. There should be socialization spaces in the villages, public transport; there should be working culture houses – even though they exist now, they are always closed, except for the elections when people go there to vote. People can’t participate in any cultural and social processes. There is nothing for young people living in the village – no parks, normal roads, well-equipped stadiums; schools fail to meet the needs of teenagers. There are water supply problems in many villages and this was especially evident during the pandemic. We campaigned on the need to maintain good hygiene, the importance of frequent hand washing, and people told us it all sounded like a joke because they do not have the most important thing – water. “How can we think about this when we need to be buying drinking water?”
Nowruz Bayram – a national holiday that can become a path to integration
Cultural integration has been on the way to achieving equality, socialization and ethnic integration. So in recent years it has attached special importance to promoting national holidays, including holidays such as Nowruz Bayram, an event with tourism potential, although the state does not care.
“My main goal is to promote human equality, socialization, integration and I believe that culture is an effective way to achieve this, so now I am trying to intensify work in this direction. Such an important event is Nowruz Bayram, which is celebrated by many people, therefore, it is a good way for socialization, integration, because it is not only important for religious minorities, but for others as well. It is a part of culture, a traditional holiday in which a large number of people should be involved, so I submitted a statement declaring Nowruz Bayram an official holiday on March 21. However, I received a negative response to this initiative. Nowruz Bayram has long been mentioned in Georgian historical sources or art monuments, is part of our intangible heritage and can even become an important tourist event. The state, in fact, says that religious minorities are important to it, but it still does not agree on such important dates. In addition, we can revive forgotten traditional holidays that will create a hub of even more socialization. Culture brings people together and unites them, so it can become a path to integration.
Another challenge I am actively thinking about is access to higher education. For the citizens of Georgia, who could not be taught Georgian by the school because the state did not want them to, a one-year language course was created, which starts after graduation. The financial provision of this course is again the responsibility of the individual – why should a person be responsible for the shortcomings of the state? Moreover, free priority programs for people participating in this program are no longer available for free.
The state policy related to ethnic minorities is problematic, the responsibility to be able to integrate lies on the person themselves. It can be said that the state is a private institution for ethnic minorities, for the services of which they need to pay money. Another incomprehensible approach is the involvement of Azerbaijan in the issue of integration of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Georgia: Why should the integration of residents of Georgia depend on another state? For example, Azerbaijan has opened a sports complex, set up an integration center, and implemented other initiatives. We are taxpayers whose needs are not taken care of by the state.
There was a case of discrimination during the pandemic, which better explains the essence of this problem. The curfew was lifted during public holidays, even canceled due to one of the sports games. We formally requested during Nowruz Bayram that the restriction be lifted for a few hours. This request was forwarded to the Committee on Religious Affairs, which is wrong – it is a national holiday and it should be qualified as such. Of course, we this request was denied, despite the fact that the public, the parties, and the Public Defender appealed to the state. So I decided to go outside on March 21 and celebrate the holiday. I did really go outside on that day, friends from Tbilisi, locals joined me, the media covered me, the president supported me and we were able to celebrate Nowruz Bayram. But this time, during such a large-scale event, the police that was supposed to be involved, just disappeared – all the responsibility fully lied on us. It was one of the most important days in my activism when we showed everyone that women have great power and can make a difference, change a lot of things. We, ethnic Azerbaijanis, women, have to face the double standards of the state and therefore are often not actively involved in social processes.”
Pro-Russian forces that provoke ethnic conflict but go unpunished
At the end of the conversation we revisited the topic of Alt-Info again. She told me that she had a case of confrontation with destructive forces during the pandemic period, so she is well aware of how dangerous it is to be influenced by such a force.
“I didn’t just happen to mention the statement about Alt-info, it is directly related to my experience. During the pandemic, a representative of one of the Islamic organizations and I filed a lawsuit against the City Hall because we considered that the money allocated in Marneuli was discriminatory. In a district where the majority is a religious minority, the expanses should not be disproportionately allocated. If the district mainly consists of a minority group, the amount allocated for its needs should not be 30 times and more than for the representatives of other religions. My request was that the money allocated to them be abolished altogether, as they are already receiving contributions from the state. Why should extra money be spent on their needs? I wanted this money to be used for the needs of socially vulnerable people and people with disabilities.
The court involved the diocese as a third party in the case, but not any other religious organization, while our appeal was to the City Hall. Then the bishop of the diocese said that we were ethnic Azerbaijanis, members of the minority, and what right we had to complain to the City Hall, how we had the courage, in fact, we were considered as guests coming to Georgia. The diocese had close ties with the Georgian March and at that point it did not matter whether it is the March or Alt-info. During that period, representatives of the groups arrived, held a large rally in Marneuli. The pro-Russian media wrote articles to damage my reputation, delivered a direct message to the separatist and made a show about me, accusing me of provoking ethnic conflict.
Probably, if the period of the pandemic had not coincided, it would have been dangerous for me to walk on the streets, because a wave of hatred, swearing and cursing had started again on social networks. A few times I was chased by a car as I was going to work, as they trapped me in a corner and intimidated by crashing the car into me. I have been through this before and I understand how dangerous it is for these people, similar groups, to be in Marneuli. I was then summoned for questioning to the SSSG, and the interrogation was conducted as if I was the guilty one. This experience showed me that the state has no will to protect us from destructive forces.
Where is the state when there is a confrontation between the two sides? Rallies are held, the safety of activists or citizens is not protected, why does it not detain the representatives of the destructive force who are contributing to the ethnic conflict?
Now I see Alt-info near the old office of the Georgian March, which employs the same people as before, that were trying to provoke the ethnic conflict. During the Davit Gareji story, they tried the same thing – they wanted to connect these events with the Azerbaijanis. Why should groups that are in direct opposition to the official foreign exchange rate of the state, which are in violation of all international agreements and conventions, be able to assert their influence? The state seems to be interested in the activities of these groups: how else would they open so many offices, work, collaborate with state structures? There are many questions here, and the state doesn’t have any answers.”
On March 14, a few days after the recording of the interview, Samira Bairamova displayed the Ukrainian flag on the banner of the Alt-Info office in Marneuli and left the caption – “Russia is an occupier”, which led to threatening messages addressed to the activist. Samira complained to the police about the messages and was summoned for questioning. The activist posted on her Facebook page that the head of the Marneuli Alt-info office, Johny Kochkiani, is suing her and demanding compensation.
