Ekaterine (Keke) Melikishvili – Meskhi was among those first Georgian women who obtained higher education in Switzerland. Her brother, a famous chemist and the first rector of Tbilisi University, Petre Melikishvili, as well as Niko Nikoladze, assisted in sending her to Europe for education.
In Switzerland Keke Melikishvili joined the association Ugheli established by Georgian students in Zurich. Along with Keke Melikishvili, the association included other Georgia women too: Kato and Olimpiada Nikoladze, Olga Guramishvili, Pelagia Natsvlishvili, Bogumila Zeminskaya.
Keke Melikishvili initiated the opening of higher educational courses for women in Odessa University and was its first dean. She was a member of a circle of women writers of the Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians; led a family printing house; was one of the founders of the publishing house Skhivi and the founder of the association Ganatleba (Education).
Twenty years of Jejili
“No one has ever heard about Georgian women writers. The first ladies, mentioned above, were shortly followed by other women some of whom started to play on the stage whilst others to write literary works. Among them was Ekaterine Meskhi, a daughter of Melikishvili. A brother of this lady, Stepane Melikishvili, was the publisher of the newspaper Droeba in 1866 and in 1865, the owner of the Georgian printing house in Tbilisi. Ekaterine Meskhi worked a lot in Droeba and other editions too”…
The newspaper Momavali, issue #38,
13 October 1901