Nino Tkeshelashvili

Nino Tkeshelashvili
ნინო ტყეშელაშვილი
Born	1874 (1874) Tiflis (Tbilisi), Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire
Died	1956(1956-00-00) (aged 81–82) Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
Nationality	Georgian
Occupation(s)	teacher, writer, women's rights activist
Years active	1903-1950s

Nino Tkeshelashvili (Georgian: ნინო ტყეშელაშვილი, 1874–1956) was a Georgian teacher, writer and women's rights activist. Born into an intellectual family in 1874, she completed the schooling available to her in Tiflis and then worked for a time in Didi Jikhaishi as a Russian language teacher. In 1903, she went to study dentistry in Moscow, where she became involved in the revolutionary student movement during the 1905 Russian Revolution. Returning to Tiflis the following year, she began to meet women writers and activists participating in the struggle for women's rights. She joined the Union of Georgian Women for Equal Rights in 1906, but three years later left the organization and co-founded the Caucasian Women's Society with a breakaway group of feminists.

As chair of the new society, Tkeshelashvili was active in the struggle for women's suffrage, in advancing the education of workers and the poor, working towards improved employment conditions and higher education for women, while addressing concerns in connection with women's health and sexuality. Around 1912, she began contributing to magazines and newspapers, addressing the issues facing women. With developments following the 1917 Russian Revolution, feminists hoped that the new Georgian Republic would heed their demands for civic and political equality. Instead, state policy created the Zhenotdel (Women's Bureau) in 1919, which limited women's free participation in society. Together with other feminists, Tkeshelashvili continued to press for equal participation until Stalin's state policies abolished the Zhenotdel and neutralized their efforts. She turned to writing, mainly writing for children in the Soviet era. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Georgian feminists rediscovered the history of Tkeshelashvili and other early associates.