D A R O S U L A K A U R I

PERSONAL PROJECTS: Deprived of Adolescence

(early marriages in Georgia). 

2014-2016 

Georgia has one of the highest rates of early marriages in Europe. It occurs mainly among Azerbaijanis in the Kvemo Kartli region and in Mountainous Ajara region, where the population is ethnic Georgians but many are Muslims unlike the country’s Orthodox Christian majority.  

A Tradition that goes back centuries, marriages in Georgia is a done mostly with cultural pressure. In villages large number of girls drop out of school to get married. A Reproductive Health Survey in 2010 revealed that “some 76.6 [percent] of married women aged 15 to 19 years used no method of modern contraception.” Unsurprisingly, then, many young brides get pregnant soon after the wedding, which can cause all sorts of health complications for their still developing bodies. Because Schools do not provide sex education, it leads to the result that the girls do not understand what marriage brings. 

The United Nations Population Fund has records showing that at least 17 percent of girls in Georgia are married before they’re 18 years old—the nation’s legal age for marriage. But what makes it hard to track is that families sometimes circumvent the law, by holding off on registering the marriage for several years. They hold weddings in rural mosques or churches and consider the couple culturally and religiously married. 

In my photo series I have photographed a wedding ceremony of a Georgian-Azeri couple, but I also documented the places where early marriages occur the most; 

I wanted the audience to get the sense of the everyday life of the region. 

One of the photograph I showed to the Georgian public was a photo that demonstrated a seventeen-year old at her wedding, having only met her soon–to–be husband, in his mid twenties, on the day of their engagement. As tears dropped from her eyes, dancing in front of her house, the dance demonstrated a farewell to her family, before the wedding ceremony. A situation far too real across Georgia, in which girls — too young to comprehend marriage — are sent off by families to be wed with little–to–no schooling, and will never have the opportunity, again, to continue any form of formal education.  

Whence placing this photograph on social media, the response was big, hitting both ends of the spectrum. The greatest opposers of the work were ethnic minority groups, demanding the photo be taken down.  

Early marriages is a very delicate issue in my country, where society ignores it or doesn’t talk about it, some don’t even know that it exists. I believe in the power of storytelling and think that this story can be a powerful tool to raise awareness in my country and beyond, creating a framework or platform for citizens to comment and debate on the issue at hand.  

  • A Georgian-Azeri couple, who are Muslim, pose in front of a mosque on their wedding day. They met one month earlier, the day their engagement was announced. She is 17 and he is 22.
  • Text
  • A 17-year-old bride leaves her house for the wedding ceremony. She met the groom one month earlier, on the day of their engagement.
  • A bride’s classmates visit her before the wedding to see her dress.
  • A 17-year-old Georgian-Azeri bride in the Kakheti Region waits for the groom to arrive on their wedding day. She and her 22-year-old husband-to-be met one month earlier, the day their engagement was announced.
  • At a salon in the village, a bride gets ready for her wedding ceremony.
  • Teenage boys chasing the newly weds with a car.
  • The bride and groom step over a dead sheep, which was sacrificed as part of a wedding ritual.
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  • A Georgian family in the Adjara region lives in this house during the summers, a standard practice for farmers in the area. Usually, the houses are more than one hundred years old, and livestock lives on the first floor while the family sleeps on the second.
  • Mari, 15, lives in the Adjara region. Most girls her age drop out of school to get married. Her grandmother believes it’s a tradition meant to be passed down.
  • A typical everyday life of a family in the Adjara region, where early marriages occur.
  • Kids go for a swim in Green Lake in the Adjara region.
  • Children stand in front of a village in the Adjara region. Early marriages are very common in this region, many girls drop out of school to get married, following the footsteps of family tradition.
  • Sali, 13 y. daydreaming. Sali is not married, though her grandmother said, she find no harm in early marriages.
  • Monika and Laura, they were given birth when their mother was 14 y.  According to statistics, Georgia has one of the highest rates of early marriages in Europe.
  • Friends swinging on a hand made swing on a foggy day. Adjara region is most common for early marriages, where young girls marry before school, following the footsteps of family tradition.
  • Tamro, 14y. dancing at her sister's engagement party. Although it is very common for girls to get married at a young age in Adjara region, Tamro says she is not ready to marry and plans to finish school.
  • Girls gathered at the engagement party at Moutanious Adjara Region.
  • Mountanious Adjara region. This part of the region is mostly known for early marriages.
  • Tamro, 14y. dressed for her sister's engagement party.
  • Young couple married during their school year.
  • Leila, a 14-year-old girl from Zugdidi, Georgia. She escaped her home at age 13 to live with a boy she fell in love with on social media.Traveling from Apkhazia to Georgia, they crossed over the Enguri River which forms the border between the breakaway region of Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. Leila, having no travel documents, had to swim across the river quietly at midnight, crossing to Georgia, bypassing Russian and Aphkhazian militants.
  • Engagement party in Adjra region.
  • Friends having a swim and rest near the Green Lake.
  • Night in Mountanious Adjara region. Newly engaged girl, giving a flashlight to her neighbor. kid.
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