I do not agree with the term “women’s empowerment.”
It sounds as if women lack strength and the world around them is trying to help them find or gain it. That’s simply not the case — women do not lack strength.

What women lack is an environment that doesn’t fight against their strength, that doesn’t limit it, shrink it, silence it, or ignore it. An environment that understands there is no such thing as a strong or weak gender.
An environment where being first or second is not the ultimate goal.

Women don’t need to be empowered —
what needs empowerment is the environment —
so that women can freely use the strength they already possess.
Not just exceptional women, not women defined by quotas, not the chosen few —
but every woman, because every woman is remarkable.

“Come on, let’s act like men, like men.”
It’s nighttime, dawn of March 8 is approaching. Black-clad officers can be seen in the background.

“Talk to women like that, huh?” — shouts another voice off-camera.

“Fuck your mother,” a man’s voice is heard.

“Thanks.”

“I’ll take you on, twice you, twice.”

“Come on, man, keep going…”

“You’ve got no honor, huh? You think you’re a man?”

A young woman approaches with a bag, says something, but the same man shouts:
“Get the fuck out of here,” and drags her by the hair.

“Hands off, boy! Hands off, boy!” — a woman’s voice is heard nearby.

“Who are you swearing at? You think you’re a man?” — shouts the girl being dragged. Black-clad officers stand around; some wear masks.

“You’re everything but a woman,” they answer back.

“Talk to your mother like that, you rude bastard!”

“Calm down, calm down,” say a few others approaching from further away.

“Calm them”

“Calm down.”

“Calm down? We’re fed up! Talk to women like that at home.”

“Move along.”

“They insult us and we’re the ones who should walk away?”

“Stop screaming, can’t you see…”

“What do you mean, stop screaming? They insult us, of course I’ll scream!”

“I said stop screaming!”

“You’re not surprised I didn’t hit anyone? What do you mean, stop screaming?”

“Move along.”

“Don’t cut us off about where we should walk.”

“Stop yelling, girl.”

“This is my land, my land. I am Georgian.”

“Go ahead, scream louder,” says a cap-wearing officer, with “POLICE” written in Latin letters on his cap.

“I will scream louder, I will scream to the very end!”

“Louder still…”

“Why did you curse my mother’s pussy when I was standing quietly?” — she turns to another.

“Repeat it, go on, repeat it,” one of them replies, hand outstretched.

“I will repeat it. I learned it from your own guys. Hear what words they used against us? Did you hear?”