Ekaterine Gabashvili ( ka, ეკატერინე გაბაშვილი) née Tarkhnishvili (თარხნიშვილი) (16 June 1851 – 7 August 1938) was a Georgian writer, feminist and public figure who called for social reform in favour of women's emancipation.

Biography

Born on 16 June 1851, Ekaterine Tarkhnishvili was born into an aristocratic family in Gori, then part of

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

. She was the daughter of Revaz Tarkhnishvili and Sopio Bagraton-Davitashvili. After completing her primary education, she attended the city's best school, a private boarding school run by Madam Favre. At 17, she opened a private school devoted to the education of peasant children, concerned as she was by the conditions of the peasantry. She married Aleksandre Gabashvili when she was 19, eventually raising 11 children. Her writing was influenced by two works on the emancipation of women which had been published in Georgian:

Harriet Taylor Mill Harriet Taylor Mill (born Harriet Hardy; 8 October 1807 – 3 November 1858) was an English philosopher and women's rights advocate. Her extant corpus of writing can be found in ''The Complete Works of Harriet Taylor Mill''. Several pieces can a ...

's ''The Enfranchisement of Women'' and Fanny Lewald's ''Für und wider die Frauen''. As a result, from 1872 she set about mobilizing Georgian women by establishing women's circles in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Kutaisi Kutaisi ( ; ka, ქუთაისი ) is a city in the Imereti region of the Georgia (country), Republic of Georgia. One of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the List o ...

, Gori and

Khoni Khoni ( ka, ხონი ) is a town in the Western Georgia (country), Georgian region (mkhare) of Imereti with a population of 7,756 as of January 2024. It is situated on the left bank of the Tskhenistsqali, Tskhenistsqali River in the north-we ...

, focused on the publication and translation of relevant women's literature. In 1897, she established a women's professional school which led to girls schools around the country. Gabashvili was an active member of the Society for the Advancement of Learning Among Georgians. In 1890, together with Anastasia Tumanishvili-Tsereteli, she co-founded ''Jejili'', a journal which published children's literature, encouraging interest in the genre in Georgia. Gabashvili was the maternal grandmother of Maro Makashvili.

Publications

She authored several sentimental novels and stories about the sorrows of village schoolteachers and peasant life. Her novels ''Love Affair in Big Kheva'' and ''While Sorting Maize'' upset the social norms of the day, calling for personal freedom and romantic love. In the 1900s, she abandoned fiction for autobiography.

Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Jose ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'': 2nd edition, p. 217. Routledge, Gabashvili is also known as one of the first Georgian

feminists Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and

women’s rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries ...

activists. In 1958, a movie ''Magdanas lurja'' ('' Magdana's Donkey''), based on one of Gabashvili’s novels and directed by

Tengiz Abuladze Tengiz Evgenis dze Abuladze, romanized: (31 January 19246 March 1994) was a Georgian film director, screenwriter, theatre teacher and People's Artist of the USSR. He is regarded as one of the best Soviet directors. Biography Abuladze studie ...

and

Revaz Chkheidze Revaz "Rezo" Chkheidze ( ka, რევაზ "რეზო" ჩხეიძე; 8 December 1926 – 3 May 2015) was a Georgian film director, People's Artist of the USSR, best known for his Soviet-era drama films, including his 1964 World Wa ...

, won prizes at the international film festivals at

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabashvili, Ekaterine 1851 births 1938 deaths Burials at Didube Pantheon Nobility of Georgia (country) People from Gori, Georgia 19th-century writers from Georgia (country) 20th-century writers from Georgia (country) 20th-century women writers from Georgia (country) 19th-century women writers from Georgia (country) Feminists from Georgia (country) Suffragists from Georgia (country) Women's rights activists from Georgia (country) Suffragists from the Russian Empire Writers from the Russian Empire

Biography

Publications

See also

References