Ethnologist, public activist, participant of the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993). In 1995, she earned her PhD at the Nikolai Miklukho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow). Her research interests include traditional rituals and ceremonies of Abkhazia, customary law, ethnopsychology and gender studies. From 2001 to 2007, she served as a deputy in the People's Assembly - the Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia.