Nana Tskhadadze is no stranger to war.

The 44-year-old sergeant served as a doctor in Iraq and was on the front lines in Tskhinvali during the 2008 August war.

But despite the doctor’s experience, for many Georgians, Tskhadadze’s gender makes her an unlikely soldier.

Gender stereotypes are strong in Georgia, where many parents still raise little boys to think they have to be strong and brave and little girls should be kind and caring.

A small minority of women, like Dr. Tskhadadze, are bucking those traditions, however.

Dr. Tskhadadze did not grow up dreaming of joining the military. As a young girl in the village of Sviri, in Georgia’s southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region, she dreamed of becoming a doctor.

After graduating from Tbilisi State Medical University, she worked as part of the school’s faculty for five years. Eventually, however, she decided to follow in the footsteps of her brother and cousins and join the military.

In the beginning of her career, Dr. Tskhadadze served in the Kodjori Brigade as the head of the pharmacy, and then she worked as a military doctor for six years. Eventually she was deployed to Iraq and, during the August 2008 was, she was sent to the frontline in Tskhinvali.

When she heard about her deployment, Dr. Tskhadadze felt she had more responsibility than her male colleagues.

"When they told us that the war had started, I began thinking about what could happen. I knew that, as a woman, I had more responsibility. In a war, anything is possible and I might be captured," she recalls, adding that her capture would be "shameful" for her family and the country.

In addition, unlike her male colleagues, Dr. Tskhadadze felt she had to hide her deployment from her parents, out of concern for their feelings. When she was sent to Tskhinvali, she told her parents she was stationed at Gudushauri Hospital in the capital.