"As Georgia rushes to embrace Western ways, a cultural taboo on sex before marriage for women is one tradition that is still holding strong. And even while acknowledging the macho tenets that shape it, the taboo is one tradition that many Georgian women from all walks of life say they do not want to buck.
We have two morals in this country: one for men and another for women, said Tbilisi State University Gender Studies Professor Nino Javakhishvili. Premarital sex is not only tolerated, but even encouraged for men, while it is frowned upon for women.
An August 2009 survey by the Tbilisi-based Caucasus Research Resource Centers reported that 77 percent of respondents think it is unacceptable for a woman to have sex before marriage. The belief is rooted both in Georgias conservative culture and the Georgian Orthodox faith, which does not discriminate between men and women on the topic.
Sex is something you do in Ukraine, Russia or some other place where people are grown-up about this, while here you just get married, grumbled twenty-something cellist Vakhtang Gabisonia.
Georgian women may shrug their shoulders and laugh about the virginity institute, but many still willingly play by its rules. This may look silly to somebody in the West, but people make choices in life according to their cultures, said 18-year-old student Nutsa Avaliani. This is how everyone in my family lived and I am going to do the same because I think it is the right way.
The Virginity Institute: Sex and the Georgian Woman | EurasiaNet.org
We have two morals in this country: one for men and another for women, said Tbilisi State University Gender Studies Professor Nino Javakhishvili. Premarital sex is not only tolerated, but even encouraged for men, while it is frowned upon for women.
An August 2009 survey by the Tbilisi-based Caucasus Research Resource Centers reported that 77 percent of respondents think it is unacceptable for a woman to have sex before marriage. The belief is rooted both in Georgias conservative culture and the Georgian Orthodox faith, which does not discriminate between men and women on the topic.
Sex is something you do in Ukraine, Russia or some other place where people are grown-up about this, while here you just get married, grumbled twenty-something cellist Vakhtang Gabisonia.
Georgian women may shrug their shoulders and laugh about the virginity institute, but many still willingly play by its rules. This may look silly to somebody in the West, but people make choices in life according to their cultures, said 18-year-old student Nutsa Avaliani. This is how everyone in my family lived and I am going to do the same because I think it is the right way.
The Virginity Institute: Sex and the Georgian Woman | EurasiaNet.org
