Revolution of roses

(Rose - female name common in Georgia)

Dil among 200 competence-competing plants earned, and recently Nargiz Gvliya for her own savings opened a permanent free medical outpatient clinic in Rustavi.

Although public activity was almost worth her life. On September 26, 1994, a bomb mounted in a chair exploded in her office. Then she accidentally escaped. Nargiz Gvliya believes that it was then that terror began in Georgia. The public did not react to this incident. Only the CNN television company responded to this excess. It was then that Gvlia and her associates decided to create an independent party. Nargiz Gvliya believes that in our reality it is not enough for a woman to be a good professional, have a successful career and a happy family ... You need to actively act, fight, and this implies to strengthen their positions in the political arena.

In Georgia, the events of November last year - folk unrest, as a result of which the president of the country has changed - is called the "revolution of roses." Bearing in mind the name of the flower, rushed out of the lawn at the most dramatic moment. I wrote a word with a capital letter - and the name turned out. The collective name of those women who stood in the square. I do not insist that they, our roses, made this revolution. But - what was their role in her? And most importantly - what can they expect from her?

All our revolutions of the last 10-12 years are densely involved in female pain. More precisely, in general national pain, which women are more expressive articulated. They are the national receiver, where this pain flows, acquires a verbal shape and the desired degree of boiling. After that, the receiver becomes a translator and a catalyst ...

When I try to analyze this, I think: Nino, about Sandra and about Rosa. Everyone knows Nino, her last name Burdzhanadze. Sandra is also known - albeit smaller. Nobody knows Rosa. In November, she came from the small Imereta village, from under Samtredia, to defend our revolution.

In 1999, in the parliamentary elections, the Union of Women's Protection received 21 thousand votes, although after unification with the Popular Front and the Society of Ilya Chavchavadze, the 7-percent barrier could not overcome. As a Majoritarium deputy, she also participated in the elections to local self-government in 2002, although due to the shortcomings of the elected law and the corruption of the election administration in Rustavi, even before the elections, it was known about the total falsification of the results. By the way, in these elections, a representative of the non-governmental organization “Fair Elections”, a 38-year-old woman, the mother of three children paid her life. Her business is up to this day in the investigation. The court considered the case of Nargiz Gvliya. Several times the court satisfied her claims regarding the powers of the elections ... But this decision did not come to life.

Nino Burjanadze is a bright young politician. This year she will be forty years old. She specialty, graduated from the Tbilisi State University, then graduate school at the Department of International Law in Moscow State University became a candidate of legal sciences. Since 1995 - a member of the Georgian Parliament. Steps of the parliamentary career: the head of the permanent delegation in the UK, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on legal issues, the chairman of the Committee on Cooperation with the European Community, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the speaker of the parliament ... At the time of the Revolution of Roses, - one of its three leaders, the rest of the two were our current President Mikhail Sakashvili and the State Resemblance to the State Research Zurab Zhivaniya. Its interview was printed in No. 16 (32) 2002.

In the first hours of the “peaceful coup” (aka “Revolution of Roses”, he is a “velvet revolution”) to her, Nino Burjanadze, fell upon himself a desperate attempt to legitimize what had happened. For she was one of the three of which had the most significant state status - the speaker of the parliament of the previous convocation.

With a great degree of reliability, you can guess about the layout of roles between Zhenya and Saakashvili. The first most experienced, sophisticated, cunning, as we say, politician. The ideologist of the revolution. The second favorite of a simple public, a master of populist operations. Revolution Motor. But what was the true role of Nino - it is difficult to judge. Was she adamant at any moments? Has the recklessness of the reign of government to men recklessly? Difficult question. Some of the observers are confident that the declaration of the acting president was given to Burjanadze. Nani Chanyshvili, the parliamentarian of one of the previous convocations, and now one of the leaders of the female movement, is convinced that this historical text, Madame Leader said under the pressure of his comrades -in -arms: “They simply hung over her when she declared the president incapable and took upon herself his functions ...” You can only guess what overloads had to be transferred to the acting of the overthrown president. And although, according to the Constitution, her rights in this case are very limited, the moral responsibility of the first days was huge. All the collapsed state economy had to at least somehow keep on the edge of the chaos. The complete “inferior” in the ranks of the opposition, the economic stupor, the destabilization of everything, the series of explosions in the center of the capital ... The only adjara of which nerves was worth it - after all, the question of the civilian world was at stake.

It was extremely important that Adjara, this problematic part of Georgia, took part in extraordinary elections. After a series of consultations at various levels, including the mediation of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nino Burjanadze went to the leader of the autonomous region Zuraba Abashidze. Diplomatic assessment of negotiations: the visit is not successful. Indeed, Abashidze, as it were, did not really notice the visit of the lady-politician. He tried to demonstrate that he was not going to talk to her about the main thing. And although the personality of Burjanadze had nothing to do with it, just Batumi, according to his rules of the game, was supposed to hold a little Tbilisi in a tension, the leader of such a traditional sense as Abashidze did not miss the opportunity to demonstrate additional neglect of our gender and. O. President ... In any case, the decisions desired for Tbilisi in Batumi were made only after the visit of the Zhiva.

The second failure befell Burjanadze in Moscow, where she went at the invitation of Putin. The main topics of the dialogue were the issues of simplifying the visa regime, resolving conflicts, the withdrawal of Russian military bases from the territory of Georgia.

Naturally, no one had illusions about this meeting - too many problems and mutual claims accumulated. The meeting of Burjanadze and Putin wore a purely symbolic load. After all, Burdzhanadze - just fulfilled “We/we”, No. 25 (41), 2003. Her guarantees could only be oral and “draft”.

In Russia, they reacted rather skeptical of this meeting, while in Georgia a lot was expected from it. The Georgians understood the naivety of these expectations on the second day after the visit - the newspaper, having realized, declared their readers the obvious: not Moscow and Tbilisi, but Moscow and Washington play a decisive role in the relations of Georgia with Russia.

I write this and I think: when I went with visits, say, Shevardnadze did I consider each available detail so in detail? Of course not. It is unlikely that we would consider how many minutes Saakashvili waited in the reception of the Russian president. But the visit of Burjanadze for many in Georgia was special - and not only because of the revolution ... I will allow a metaphor: there was a fire in the house, relatives broke, tensed through the neighbors. Who is the first to start placing the remains of furniture, revenge on the floor, feed children, hang underwear ropes? Of course, women. I think that Nino Burjanadze had about the same function. Even at the level of big policy.

Before the New Year, Moscow, as it were, apologized slightly to Nino Burjanadze. However, it is very angular - the ORT TV channel named her name among the most popular people of the outgoing year and devoted a special plot to her. There was no doubt that one of the first frames in him would be a rose! Yes, on the table in the house of Nino Burjanadze there is a gold rose in a vase. A symbol of the “velvet revolution” and a gift to her heroine. Artificial colors of the acting He does not like the president, so the Rosa is a real, covered with a layer of gold paint. Naturally, Burdzhanadze jokes that the same woman -politician is the same: metal, inside - thin petals. The author of the plot reports that in Georgia this woman is called "Iron Nino" and that "for the Caucasus, a female leader of such a rank is even more sensation than for Russia." True, even to Burjanadze, a woman is the ruler of Tamara once by Georgia, and it was some eight hundred years ago. But this is not interested in the author of the plot and not the process, so to speak, the reign of the country. He is interested in home cuisine and. O. The president and her non -standard husband is "the only Caucasian man who prohibits (!) to cook his wife." And Burjanadze herself says: “My husband scolds me when I start to engage in households. I am indignant and say that it is usually the other way around, they scold when a woman does nothing at home. But now he understands how loaded I am, and there can be no talk of any reproaches. ” And it could, they say. It could well. Of course, the presidential security also complains - he cannot get used to the fact that a woman has to protect. “Madam and. O. The president can suddenly change the route and go to the hairdresser for an hour. Or not to leave the house, not talking with a friend before that ... "All this vulgar nonsense is about a woman

Not, who was just the heroine of the real political drama.

Sandra Rulovs is the wife of our popularly chosen new president. On January 4, in an extraordinary election, he received 96 percent of the vote. Undoubtedly, a noticeable part of them was brought to him by his wife. Sandra, as they say in Georgia, is “our daughter -in -law.” So we determine our wives brought by Georgians from other countries. Sandra is a Dutchman, blonde, smiling, European to the brain of bones. Live, open, jokes a lot. When she begins to speak in Georgian, and even more so - to sing folk songs, all Georgia wipes off tears of tenderness.

This is an extremely successful touch to the portrait of his favorite Misha. “Mi-sha! Mi-sha! " - chanted rallies. And here such a wife is a beauty and clever, and such advanced, and so tolerant, and so subtly feels our national spirit ... I think that she feels how she needs to behave in her husband’s political interests. During a brief, hastily organized election campaign, Sandra held dozens of meetings with voters in different parts of Georgia. I called to vote for her husband, distributed sweets and promises. She smiled, sang “Tbiliso”, spoke not only in Georgian, but also in a mingrel, if it demanded that ... strengthening the promoted “brand” of roses, promised that Vardiko would certainly call her second child (in Georgian “Vardi” rose). Jokes jokes, but in Georgia, where the cult of the family is preserved, these image -maker moves are very competent and win -win.

So our revolution was not failed by Sandra.

On November 15, Rosa Mchedlidze arrived in Tbilisi from a small village near Samtredia. I met her on Rustaveli Avenue on the 22nd. By this moment, Rosa had been standing on the square for a week, only at night, moving to the metro to distant relatives in one of the sleeping regions of Tbilisi. Many of her fellow countrymen, she said, arrived in Tbilisi in an organized way, by buses. Because of family affairs, she did not sex on time and arrived after fellow countrymen on the way. Many protesters were given something like a business trip - Ho she was late and therefore rally volunteer, for the idea. The idea is this: you can’t live like this anymore!

Rose lives like this. Her husband has five years as he left for Russia as if by a construction worker and disappeared. No, he alive, waved Rosa with his hand, called a year and a half ago, for some reason from Tashkent. Do you understand why? But he cannot come yet, there is no money. Three children at home with a rose, the younger was born exactly before separation from her husband. Still at home, pensioners are the mother -in -law and mother -in -law. Pensions - for two - $ 14 a month, they are given extremely irregularly - about 3-4 times a year. There is also a sympathic-teacher. They do not pay at all.

There is no money in the village. Natural metabolism flourishes, artisanal crafts have been revived, smokers grow tobacco themselves ... In the village, says Rosa, from October to April-May there is practically no light. You get up when it lights up, you go to bed when it gets dark. Autumn has come to cut the refrigerator, close the TV, hang up from dust. It’s a pity for children, they rush to this TV in the spring, as if they had not seen him in life. She has her hands swollen from the cold and a dark face.

The velvet gender, or the gender aspect of the velvet revolution this time, was still noticeably less than at rallies of the times of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Then, in the early 90s, they were an awesome force and shield of the first president. The first lady was worth the story of an eyebrow, and the female crowd instantly issued the required - a flurry of applause or a flurry of curses ... On television there is a very simple but effective technique when it is necessary to stir the audience in one direction or another: a picture of a hysterically screaming woman. She (someone’s sister, mother, wife, daughter!) Is full of emotions and screams, and you are sitting by the TV and pouring anger. Isn't this a classic beginning of all ethnic conflicts?

In the days of the revolution and after I talked a lot with the other two roses, they are my friends in the coalition of female NGOs of Georgia. I and our other colleagues I asked about which model the gender alignment of what happened to us is. Rosa Kukhalashvili, the chairman of the NPO “Zelezov of Abkhazia” said approximately the following: what is the gender? Now everyone is one, all in one impulse. You wait, Bot will go home at home, here you will be a gender. Some will go home to wash the floors, while others will remain to share power.

Rosa Tsindeliani, the leader of the non -governmental organization Sabinebi, commented as follows: - Women were very active, they demonstrated a greater civil will. Without their participation, it is likely that the result of the confrontation could be completely different ... But the new parliamentary elections are approaching = instead of those that were falsified. And what? Women are again in zero positions, nothing shines for them this time. We say that we want to be a democratic country. So let's take an example from Europe. In many European countries, parties are simply not registered in the elections if men and women are not equally represented in the election list.

Nani Chanyshvili, head of the NPO “Association of Gender Development” and the chairman of the club of female parliamentarians: gender imbalances in state power under any president - under Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze, and in any political situation remain stable. The share of women in parliament is negligible - 6-7 percent, no more. No political changes affect - the imbalance was, is and will be. In March, we will have new parliamentary elections - I think that the female percentage will become even lower. Falsified elections or Nefalsified ones - this does not affect women’s representation. What is this talking about? The fact that no political forces are interested in attracting women.

Charyta Jashi, the leader of the non -governmental organization “Gender for Socio -Economic Development”, noticed an interesting pattern: - In 1990, we had the first multi -party elections. Gamsakhurdievsky "Round table" won. There were many national romanticism, and most of the protesters were women. Now pragmatism is claiming to be, issues of power are being resolved. The need for radical changes has risen, and the gender proportions of the protesters also changed. The power of the bait for men. However, it is interesting to look not only at gender proportions, but also at age. Young people made up the majority at the November rallies, young men were most active. Why? Because it is for this category that all resources are most accessible today. This is the result of the cataclysms that we experienced over the past decade. Women are removed from resources, they have much more obstacles to good education, social guarantees, etc. Hence the difference in thinking. Conclusion: you need to work as much as possible with women. Their activation will make the victory of our democracy irreversible.

The WE/We magazine, No. 25 (41), 2003. Lelia Khomerika from the organization “Civil Culture Center” as this: gender balance in such a specific field as the composition of the protesting crowd, is an indicator of the democracy of social processes. That is why men and women, according to my observations, were about 50 to 50. In this regard, it was interesting to observe the support group of the former president, which was the Priabashijid Party “Renaissance” there in the majority men definitely were men. According to Lela, romanticism leads the female majority on the square, democracy gives an equal ratio, and the command style of the advantage of men ...

With all the variety of assessments and thoughts, most activists of the female movement, with whom I spoke on this topic, clearly welcome the presence of revolutionaries in the triumvirates of Nino Burjanadze.

Changing a member to membership?

The “Women's Political Forum of Georgia” (several non -governmental organizations worked in it) considered its main task to develop an appropriate initiative for legislators. In 2001, “Women's Politforum” prepared an explanatory note for our parliamentarians. The idea of ​​female quotas was argued in detail, world precedents were analyzed, and benefits were proved. Based on all the arguments, women proposed to fix the following practice in the electoral legislation: in party election lists of any level, at least 40 percent of representatives of each of the sexes should be.

The second attempt began in 2002 and failed with a bang in 2003, shortly before revolutionary events. The new proposal to the electoral code was developed more carefully, this time the initiative came from deputies of local authorities. The proposal sounded like this: not to register the election lists of political parties if every fourth on the list is not a woman. The proposed amendments twice passed parliamentary readings, and for the third time they were “broken”. They say that not without a scandal: Madam Speaker left the hall during the vote. This story has already managed to form a beard. It is said that from the part of the Parliament leadership there was a clear opposition to supposedly from the speaker a direct instructions to raise this proposal to laugh, to embroider it to the puffs! Which was done. One prominent our parliamentarian from the chairman in the meeting room said this way: if such an offer passes, then men will do operations to change the floor. Terribly funny. However, many of our deputies are capable of not this. But so far it is much easier for them to stop any attempts to introduce the most temporary, smallest female quotas.

The most interesting thing is that the absolute majority of that small detachment of women that are present in our parliament opposes the quota. Nino Burjanadze is categorically configured against them; He believes that this is a “complex question”, our human rights activist Helene Tevodoras; A number of less well-known female parliamentarians also reject the idea in the root.

So the floor correction operations in the Georgian parliament are unlikely to be practiced in the foreseeable future.

The revolution continues, I do not know if it was a revolution. If you mean the term a large and qualitatively progressive leap. I think that the inspirers will have to prove her for a long time what was. As a matter of fact, only one thing can be evidence - it is a revolutionary change in the quality of life. And this, in addition to the sincerity of intentions, depends on too many circumstances.

So the revolution continues. For the redistribution of power continues, everything stands on end, on passions, on the nerves. And therefore - so far not to normal relations, not to the gender balance. Although our new president is a European man, oriented purely democratically. And although the former also positioned himself in this way, the new one had a large and so far unspelled credit of trust.

My friend Rose is the one that sells apples - exists in the same conditions as before. It also freezes from dawn to midnight above his greens. But she is satisfied that she managed to insist on her own that we now have a new president. I don’t know about another rose, even the name of her village flew out of my head. I am sure that she patiently waits for change.

I also understand that waiting for a long time.