Meskhetian women living in Ianeti do not make their choices. Their destiny is decided by others.
“Men shall ensure financial support and women shall take care of them”, – this is the principle, according to which Mesketian men have turned a status of a housewife into “profession” of repatriated Meskhetian woman.
Their hands bear evidence of hard work, while their tanned faces are touched by a smile. Mesketian women sincerely welcome guests.
Women from all thirty five families residing in the ninth district of Ianeti in Samtredia municipality live similar lives.
Dressed in colored long dresses and wearing headscarves, they go together to pray once a week. They follow the road towards the mosque talking and cheerful.
According to the Koran, women are prohibited from worshiping along with men, so they go to Mosque at different times.
Gulnazi is one of them, who has plenty of household work to do after worshiping. At that time women traditionally wear a headscarf, the selection of colors is a kind of a therapy. When she is in a good mood, she wears a red headscarf. She thinks that the color red brings success.
Gulnazi was raised in Ozurgeti. She got married in Ianeti when she was 16. Now she is a mother of three children.
Gulnazi Khosadze: “I was good at needlework during my childhood but then women were banned from studying. I could not study either. Now I am a housewife. Being a housewife is a tough job. You do a lot of work but still there is a lot more to do”.
Meskhetian housewives make their own brooms and have their own style of hanging laundry.
When Gulnazi’s older children come back from school, she helps them with homework.
Gulnazi’s mother-in-law helps her with household chores. 52 year old Suria takes more loads on herself. Her day starts at 6 a.m. She works on a small land plot using hoe, spade and pickaxe. She seeds corn and vegetables.
Products grown by Suria represent both food and income for the Bagbanov family.
Mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law prepare dinner together. Meskhetian women always prepare nutritious food for their husbands when they come home from work.
When she has time, Suria sits by the old sewing machine. Sewing is relaxing for her.
She travels in time while surfing through a photo album and tells her grandchildren stories about her childhood spent in Nalchik.
Traditional, party dresses can be found only in Suria’s photo album.
Suria Izno: “We used to wear layered dresses when marching. My grandmother sewed such dresses for me and I liked it very much. I remember how proud we were when wearing those dresses”.
Little Meskhetian girls listen to their grandmother’s stories with great interest and dream of layered dresses.
Who knows, maybe they are the girls who will decide their future themselves one day.
Along with being housewives, Mesketian women often assume the tough work of shepherds.
59 years old Camila is a mother of five children.
Mesketian women, deprived of a choice, are still happy. They cannot imagine their lives going otherwise. Many young girls accept that situation as well. However, there are some, who struggle for their future and such struggle starts in the family.
Ana Janashia, Baia Mikaberidze