Enri Oniani, a member of Georgian March, shared a video by a women’s rights activist, Ida Bakhturidze via Facebook on October 13 with the following caption: “An idea by an ultra-radical feminist-liberast. Are they striving towards development?” The video is a 21-second segment from Barrier, a program at TV Caucasia that aired on May 12, 2017, in which Ida Bakhturidze says the following: “Women will start addressing the problem of prostate by organizing an initiative to ban prostate problems and punishing certain people for being the carriers of this disease.”
The video, disseminated by Enri Oniani, is taken out of context and creates a perception that Ida Bakhturidze came up with an initiative to ban prostate diseases. In fact, Ida Bakhturidze is arguing about a legal initiative to ban abortion and talks about the problems of abortion that should be treated. In this context, she brings the prostate problem as an example that cannot be solved with punishment. It is these words that are heard in the video, as it had been cut in such a way so as to illustrate the radicalism of feminists.
The video is a segment from Barrier, a program at TV Caucasia that aired on May 12, 2017. The given program concerned the legal initiative to ban abortion and demographic problems. Besides Ida Bakhturide, other guests included Elene Rusetskaya, as well as representatives of ultra-nationalist groups – Zviad Tomaradze and Alexandre Palavandishvili.
Ida Bakhturidze mentioned in the program that banning is not a way to address this problem. It was precisely to illustrate this point that she brought the prostate problem as an example, which, in her opinion, cannot be treated through punishment. It is these words that are heard in the video, as it had been cut in such a way so as to illustrate the radicalism of feminists. According to Ida Bakhturidze, abortion exclusively concerns women’s bodies, just like the prostate concerns exclusively men’s bodies, hence, banning one or the other would be an incorrect way to address the problem.
Ida Bakhturidze: “I want to point out in the beginning that we, those who stand against banning abortions, are not supporting abortion – this is a very clear position and we also believe that it is a problem that abortion is the only way for women to defend themselves. This is everybody’s problem, but problems should not be addressed with banning. One cannot simply ban a problem if one does not treat it. I can, for instance, say a very interesting thing, which, may not be a totally adequate comparison, but let us say I think that we, women are beginning to address the problems of prostate by organizing an initiative to ban prostate problems and punishing certain people for being the carriers of this disease.”
Author of the post and its dissemination
As of October 15, the video had 9,500 views, 242 reactions, 129 comments, and 130 shares. Aggressive and offensive messages towards Ida Bakhturidze have been voiced in the comments section of the video.
Initially, the video was disseminated by a Facebook page “Guram Sherozia’s Blog” in May 2017. Sherozia’s Blog did not disseminate the video devoid of context, however, he criticized Bakhturidze’s comparison and called her judgement “distorted”. The video is still available on the given page.
On October 13, a member of Georgian March, Enri Oniani, uploaded the video to Facebook. Oniani is also present in the electoral list of the Georgian March for the 2020 Parliamentary Elections. He often disseminates homophobic and xenophobic messages via social media.
