Backsliding on women’s rights takes centre stage at the Tbilisi Book Fair

Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, approximately 25 per cent of countries worldwide are witnessing a regression in women’s rights and gender equality. This backlash includes growing discrimination and increasing violence against women human rights advocates, the weakening of legal remedies, and cuts in funding for programmes and institutions supporting women. The new reality poses a threat to human rights as a whole, the quality of democracy, and the achievements that women human rights defenders, activists, representatives of various sectors and individual women have attained through hard work and struggle.

All fields that foster humane values and healthy social norms play a crucial role in stopping this wave of regression—especially literature, which unites countless people globally around bright ideas.

The warnings that literature offers, the way it reflects the global backsliding on women’s rights, and the links between fiction and reality—these were the topics of the panel discussion “Back to the Future: Patriarchal Revenge in Contemporary Literature”, organized by UN Women. The discussion took place within the framework of one of the most popular and large-scale literary events in the region, the Tbilisi Book Fair. Participants included Mariam Kvitsiani, founder of the publishing house “Meduza” and a writer, as well as writers Nana Abuladze and Mindia Arabuli.

During the discussion, the speakers reviewed dystopian literary works as reflections of real sociopolitical processes, drew parallels between fictional plots and reality, discussed why women’s progress and empowerment often trigger systemic aggression and patriarchal backlash, and reflected on the role literature plays in combating inequality and injustice. As emphasized by the participants, freedom is not guaranteed all at once and for all time—it requires constant protection.

The discussion was attended by individuals interested in the topic and by visitors to the book fair. The writer Elza Gurgenidze was among them, noting after the discussion: “With The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood made the threat of regression in rights both visible and convincing—almost commonplace. Literature dispels the illusion that ‘this cannot happen here’. Literature can reject oversimplification. Reactionary forces reduce women to the following functions: motherhood, doing dishes, being a symbol. Literature reveals the complex and contradictory inner world of women—full of desires and reflection, portraying reality without euphemisms. When abortion becomes an abstract political issue, literature fills it with lived experience—with fear, difficult decisions, risks to the body, moral conflict. The same applies to family control, economic dependence or silent coercion. By overcoming isolation, literature fosters solidarity. It makes it possible to expose many forms of pressure exerted on women, and readers now can realize that this is not happening only to them.”

The Tbilisi Book Fair was held from 23 to 26 April at Expo Georgia. Alongside the exhibition and sales, it hosted a diverse literary programme and activities, including book presentations, meetings with authors, workshops, creative sessions and masterclasses. Organized by the Georgian Book Association, the event is held annually.

The panel discussion at the event was organized within the framework of the UN Women programme “Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies”. The programme is implemented by UN Women country offices in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, with support from the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and with generous funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.