Minority Azerbaijan - Transgender woman sets herself on fire in Tbilisi

A transgender woman has set herself on fire in front of Tbilisi City Hall during a protest against the government ‘negligence’ in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The incident occurred as several transgender women gathered in front of Tbilisi City Hall to protest a lack of support from the government during the novel coronavirus outbreak.

During the small rally on Thursday evening in front of the City Hall building, Madona Kiparoidze, one of the protesting women, set herself on fire. Police officers managed to strip off her flaming jacket before detaining her. Kiparoidze, who communicated with others after the incident and did not seem to have sustained any life-threatening injuries, was later transported to a hospital by ambulance.

‘I am a transgender woman, and I’m setting myself on fire because the Georgian state doesn’t care about me’, Kiparoidze shouted after being detained. ‘We can’t even pay for our rent. What can we do?’, another protester told TV Pirveli after the incident.

Tamaz Sozashvili, one of the founders of Tbilisi Pride, tweeted out soon after that the incident occurred because of the government’s ‘immobility and ignorance’ towards transgender people during the pandemic.

Today, trans woman tried to commit a sucide in front of #Tbilisi City Hall to protest @GovernmentGeo's immobility and ignorance towards them during #Covid19 crisis.

Trans people are among most vulnerable groups in #Georgia @kakhakala @HumanRightsGeo #HumanRights #LGBT #Equality pic.twitter.com/X9YEKkaTN6
— Tamaz Sozashvili (@TamazSozashvili) April 30, 2020