Encouraged Insults and Sexist Statements Against Female MPs in Parliament

Irakli Beraia’s offensive tirade was preceded by Teona Akubardia’s statement. She spoke about the permanent deployment of Russia’s naval fleet in Russian-occupied Abkhazia and said that Georgian Dream has no answer to this nor does it support the draft resolution.

‘‘First, she said that at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, I and my colleagues did not support the amendment meant to further the interests of Georgia by not being present in the hall, and thus fulfilled Putin’s orders, which was a lie and deliberate disinformation. She knows very well that the Georgian delegation does not vote for any decision in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as we are not a NATO member state.

Ms. Akubardia has visited the NATO Parliamentary Assembly many times, but when many of my remarks were initiated and amendments were made, and when the issue of Georgia was being discussed, she was never present in the hall. She had run away on a shopping spree or was too lazy to get up from bed hungover. My colleagues and I never went so far as to accuse someone of carrying out orders of our enemies.

It's a shame that in our committee, which voted for her deputy chairmanship 4 times, she chose the path of confrontation, and became a serial liar and a shameful person. Unworthy people make for disgraceful politicians, and not only are they not worthy of being deputy chairmen of the defense committee, but such people should not be allowed anywhere near the committee.

This is not about state interests or occupation, the real reason Mrs. Akubardia has been referring unfavorably to me and our committee in the past year is that she is short on opportunities to use various platforms for disinformation; rubbing shoulders with others like her and taking Facebook selfies; binge eating and getting completely wasted in airport lounges and passing out, those who know her will know what I mean. I call on this person to refrain from mentioning me and my committee with her wide mouth that’s been all over the place,’’ stated Irakli Beraia.

At the same session, another deputy of the ruling party, Aluda Ghudushauri, insulted Ani Tsitlidze.

Ghudushauri was talking about former president Mikheil Saakashvili when he referred to him as devoid of dignity and morals. ‘‘You are a moron’’ – this outburst by Tsiteladze was followed by sexist remarks by Ghudushauri: ‘‘You are a pathetic, miserable woman. You are not even on the list of women Saakashvili enjoyed, so calm down and get out of here. Get out you cheap, wretched… keep walking.

According to Teona Akubardia, she is not afraid of the State Security Service and Georgian Dream, and cannot be silenced.

The opposition MPs protested the statements of Beraia and Ghudushauri and demanded that Beraia resign from the position of the chairman of the Defense and Security Committee.

The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili also addressed the sexist and offensive statements towards female MPs.

‘‘Today I heard words that insult the entire Parliament of Georgia. This is truly a shame: for Georgians, for Georgia, for the Parliament of Georgia.

I don’t know how this Parliament can adopt a law on obscenity, for if this is not obscenity, I don’t know what is,’’ the President called on the chairman of the parliament to take the strictest possible measures against those who allowed themselves to act like this today.’’

Irakli Beraia apologized yesterday for the sexist statements he made towards Teona Akubardia:

‘‘We always have a bitter reaction to someone shamelessly accusing us of having ties with the Kremlin. It is very hard and painful for us when our team is unjustly accused of acting in favor of Russian interests, especially considering that it has a recurring pattern. This is a red line for us, which we will never put up with, as we know how much we are doing to further the national interests of our country. On the second part, I admit that the reaction was emotionally excessive, due to the severity of the statement that we were hearing, and for that, I want to apologize.’’

According to the Chairman of the Parliament, he concedes that he could have cut off the microphone of the Georgian Dream deputy Irakli Beraia at some point. However, during the insults, Papuashvili did not even call on the deputies to refrain from sexist expressions.

Salome Samadashvili, a member of the Lelo party, demanded at today's session that the case of Beraia be escalated to the Ethics Council of the Parliament.

‘‘Ok, now you all are asking for too much. He went over the line yesterday and we ourselves admitted that. He said he was sorry. At the same time, none of you seem to remember what kind of banner you spread here, with what content, I’m not even going to quote, when Tea Tsulukiani was here. Was she not a woman or a person? When they posted women MPs on Mona.ge [slave.ge], did any of you raise an objection to that? Is that less of an insult?! Is it not worse?!

Don’t overreach and be happy with the sincere apology you got,’’ Mamuka Mdinaradze, the chairman of the Georgian Dream faction, addressed the opposition.

According to Mark Clayton, the ambassador of the United Kingdom to Georgia, violence against women and offensive language is one of the factors that leads to the non-participation of women in politics, and it is essential offensive language is eliminated from political discussion.