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/Preface

Daughters of Maro: Chronicles of Georgian Women Political Resistance 2024 – 2025

A single mother separated from a group of brutally beaten protesters and broke through a police cordon built of shields… Before going out to the protest, the woman wrote on her arm that she had allergies and asked doctors not to administer certain medications if she were found unconscious… The World Press Photo winning image shows a woman standing in front of riot police with her arms outstretched, demanding to be detained because her friend had already been arrested. In the isolator, she was humiliated and filmed. But who could have imagined that, a year after, people would be publishing photos of burns caused by water cannons, explaining them by the possible addition of chemical substances. Agents banned since the World War One.

On November 28, 2025, the continuous political protest in Georgia surpassed the 365-day mark, and still nothing is certain. However, it can definitely be said that it has become part of the world’s newest history and this chapter bears a woman’s face.

In anticipation of major changes, an unnoticed revolution has already taken place. It can be called a rethinking of civic equality and responsibility. In a conservative country of the South Caucasus, a protest sparked by women’s rebellion has become one of the 21st century’s longest running examples of continuous resistance and resilience. But it would be wrong to see this process merely as the formation of a new identity… For the majority, it is more about defending their own identity and reconnecting with cultural roots that the Sovietization of Georgia had suppressed for nearly a century.

After the 2024 parliamentary elections, the statement by the newly appointed PM regarding the halt of Georgia’s EU accession impacted not only Georgia but also the central corridor of the Silk Road. The West began seeking alternative transit routes, which in turn facilitated the peaceful resolution of the thirty-year frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and initiated negotiations on models of economic cooperation with the European Union.

Peace – was the main electoral slogan of the Georgian Dream party. Yet the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize to Mzia Amaglobeli, a media manager who became the first female journalist imprisoned in the history of independent Georgia. International diplomats and local audiences alike speak of a hybrid annexation and of novel methods restricting media freedom and freedom of speech… And although the ruling political force denies the accusations and insists on its European aspirations, the fact remains the unchanged. On October 16, Elina Valtonen, the Chair of the OSCE and Finland’s Foreign Minister, on an official visit to the country, was fined 5,000 GEL for allegedly blocking a road. But even this can be considered a mild punishment, especially when compared to the potential criminal liability if the same act were repeated.

Almost all small media outlets face the threat of closure. Some even launched a separate campaign titled “The Light must stay on”. One of the main opposition channels, Mtavari, has already shut down, while two others, TV Pirveli and Formula, remain under constant financial and legal risk.

To keep things brief, this book represents only a small part of an archival installation created over the past year through the systematization of materials circulated via the media and the personal pages of the participants themselves. It offers the reader a chronological and subjective understanding of the essence of the political protest and the formation of its female face. Same time, Daughters of Maro also resonates with the global phenomenon we have been observing for years in Iran, Belarus, Venezuela… a phenomenon to which Georgia is still contributing… Day 407 by January 8, 2026.

Calling it an archive might be too bold. Daughters of Maro can better be described as a chronicle, since even in its expanded form, countless names remain unrecorded, without whom speaking of this epic resistance would be unimaginable.

It should be said that, despite the exemplary struggle of Georgian women, this is not an attempt to idealize this people. A time will come when a detailed analysis of the events will be necessary. But these details risk being lost in the stream of collective memory and the continuous feed of social networks, to the point that even the author may not remember their existence. Not to mention the attempts to shut down media organizations, which would erase published materials from circulation. Unfortunately, examples of this already exist…

The disappearance of memory, that was exactly what I worried about when I titled the work Daughters of Maro… Maro is the name of a young girl born into a well-off and influential family in Georgia, who in 1921 joined the ranks of fighters resisting the approaching Red Army near Tbilisi. Tragically, the 19-year-old nurse, Maro Makashvili, was killed the very next day by an exploding grenade. After the Soviet occupation, even mentioning her name or the names of her fellow fighters was prohibited, and anything that could revive fragments of memory faced brutal persecution. Only decades later, in 2015, Maro Makashvili was posthumously awarded the title of Georgia’s first female National Hero, and her name became a symbol of political resistance. Even more symbolic is the fact that today the epicenter of this protest is exactly where Maro Makashvili’s remains are buried. At the steps of the Georgian Parliament building, which was built on the ruins of the Russian military church…

I was concerned, that energetically the ongoing protest might be associated with failure, but according to the vast majority of those involved, what is happening in Georgia now is a direct continuation of a story that began a hundred years ago and its next chapter. As I have already noted, this work, through the individual and collective protest acts and experiences of the women involved, seeks to provide a chronological and firsthand understanding of the events, while also attempting to preserve these singular examples, acts through which history is written.

No matter how sentimental it may sound, I need to add one important detail at the end, which gave me the main inspiration to complete this work. Despite everything said above, Daughters of Maro is not primarily about violence against women, restrictions on freedom of speech, or the process of self-determination.

For me, the main motivation for working on this project was my daughter, Vivienne, for whom I wanted to show, through living examples, the kinds of challenges she may face in her own struggles. Challenges that anyone might encounter in life and despite everything, the courage with which she can meet them.

I hope that the interviews and personal notes archived in Daughters of Maro will, in the future, also facilitate the work of other researchers and contribute to the interpretation of the events that have unfolded.

Koka Vashakidze, Tbilisi, 2026