Weightlifter accuses a coach of sexual harassment
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Thursday, April 11
Weightlifter Tatia Lortkipanidze accuses Temur Janjgava, a coach of the women’s team, of sexual harassment and discrimination. Lortkipanidze talked about it in a press conference held on April 9th.
According to her, the fact that she would not be able to participate in the championship was announced on April 5. As Lortkipanidze said, the reason behind this was personal disagreement between her and the main coach of the women’s team.
As she says, there was enormous pressure on her coming from the coach: “It’s very hard for me to talk about this, but there was huge pressure on me. He was accusing me of being pregnant, which was outraging for me. I didn’t know what to do, he would ask me very disturbing questions. Once I even asked him to leave the room.”
“This is huge discrimination, sexual harassment, which was systematized and continued [for a period of time]. It was a huge crime against a young woman. This put Tatia in an unequal situation and made her do things that she did not feel comfortable with.” Said Dimitri Lortkipanidze, father of Tatia.
Giorgi Asanidze, the head coach of the Georgian Team, talked about Tatia in an interview with Imedi TV. He said that the reason why Tatia was not able to participate in the championship was that she was not attending meetings and her attitude was not appropriate.
“Disregarding the team, refusing to attend the events and etc. was the reason why this decision was made.” Noted Asanidze.
As Dimitri Lortkipanidze said, he has already had a meeting with Nino Lomjaria, Public Defender of Georgia, and he plans to take the case to the court.
In the last few years, the government has become more proactive regarding the issue of sexual harassment. A few months ago, new legislation about such crimes was adopted. The main goal of the law is to have the offenders on permanent control.
A few days ago it was announced that Tatia Samkharadze won the case against Shalva Ramishvili. It marks as one of the first precedents in Georgian juridical history when a man was found guilty of workplace sexual harassment.
“I fought for this for three long years, despite many setbacks I was able to prove that one can win no matter how hard the way is.” Noted Tatia Samkharadze, “at some point I lost all my strength, but I had to fight for my rights. Today I can say very loudly that woman’s body and sexuality cannot be obtained with a force.”
The country still has a long way to go. While the new laws are very important, the problem lies within the Georgian Society. Even today, many women who are being sexually harassed become the main targets of aggression from society. Because of this, many women in Georgia rarely report a sexual assault.
