Baia Pataraia

Baia Pataraia (; born 1982) is a leading feminist activist and human rights lawyer in Georgia. She is the director of the women's rights organization Sapari.

Early life and education Baia Pataraia was born in Tbilisi in 1982.

She studied international law and economics at Tbilisi State University, graduating in 2004, then obtained a master's degree in human rights law from Central European University in Hungary in 2006.

Career and activism Beginning in 2008, Pataraia became a visiting lecturer at Tbilisi State University and the Free University of Tbilisi. While there, she helped draft the new law Article 126, which formally defined the crime of domestic violence in Georgia. Her work also included ensuring that sexual harassment was covered by the Law on Gender Equality. She eventually left government to focus on activism full-time.

Pataraia has been heavily involved as a leader in her country's feminist movement since 2012, when she began organizing with the Independent Group of Feminists. By her own account, early activists in Georgia did not explicitly describe themselves as "feminists," but that changed in the early 2010s.

Critics have questioned Pataraia's independence as an activist due to her prior work in the federal government, but she argues this experience has made her a more effective advocate. She has also been the target of death threats and street harassment for her work. Unusually that year, three women were given the award, the other two recipients were Eliso Rukhadze and Tozu Gulmamedli.