https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15619077
Tamila Davitadze
Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
[tamila.davitadze@bsu.edu.ge]
Nana Mazmishvili
Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
[nana.mazmishvili@bsu.edu.ge]
Religion and Women in Adjara
Abstract: The attitude of Islam towards women’s issues is not at all uniform. Two tendencies can be observed in it: the first, reactionary or conservative, which implies the aspiration that women’s emancipation be limited to the framework of Islam, the second ‒ radical, which tries to prove that the liberation of women in the Muslim world, the improvement of their socio-economic conditions, their inclusion in public and political life, do not at all contradict the norms of Islam. From this point of view, the issue of the relationship between religion and women in Adjara is very interesting, which we would like to discuss extensively in the presented work, especially since there is a lack of research on Georgian Muslim women in Adjara and their experiences in gender studies in Georgia. The presented research aims to discuss and familiarize the society with the experience of Georgian, Muslim women in Adjara. Although not all women follow permanent religious practices, Islam still remains an important part of their identity. Being a Muslim, along with identity, is a very intimate and personal inner spiritual state for Adjarian women and is not expressed in rituals or external attributes. Today, there is a relatively safe space for “revealing” Muslim identity in our Christian country, which we cannot forget about the early period. However, young people, including students, who have moved to the capital – Tbilisi from Adjara or other parts of the country, first test the waters and then talk about their religious identity, which is followed by mixed reactions.
Keywords: Adjara; women; religion; identity; politics.
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