Georgia and The Virginity Institute By Katrina Myers

This post is written in conjunction with the Feminist Ethics Course Dialogue project sponsored by Claremont School of Theology in the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium,  Claremont Graduate University, and directed by Grace Yia-Hei Kao.

Katrina Myers is a MA student at Claremont School of Theology and is participating in the Feminist Ethics Course Dialogue project.

During the past two years, I had the opportunity to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in the country of Georgia, which is located in Eastern Europe.  There I worked as a schoolteacher and lived in a tiny, homogenous, Georgian village in the Kakheti region.

I quickly learned the encompassing influence of the Georgian Orthodox Church, which upholds an ideal hierarchy: God, Jesus, Patriarch, Man, Woman.  The church champions traditional gender roles; men are to be strong leaders and heads of the community and their households, while women are expected to be virginal, modest, obedient and subservient.  In Georgian culture, the influence of the Church and the teachings of Patriarch Ilia II and his predecessors are indisputable. Continue reading “Georgia and The Virginity Institute By Katrina Myers”