Activism
[Part of the interview cut out from the video: the interviewer asks the speaker to talk about her activism.]
Naxhije Buçinca: As they say, my work was dedicated to the patriotic cause because we were in some way occupied by the Communist system. We were not equal even though we lived in equality, but I built this life even earlier, when I explained my childhood education. I continued, and when I arrived in Kosovo, in Vushtrri, I continued with my reactions where the rights of Albanians and my nation were abused. Thus I did not call it a political life, but I called it a life in which every person must defend one’s nation, to defend the cause of that population to which one belongs, because it was abused, threatened, and discriminated in many ways. Therefore, I didn’t say that it was my political movement, or my political action, as I accepted it as patriotic work, the duty of every member who experienced all that…especially after Milošević’s rise to power.
Thus, I experienced some big disappointments as a result of my behavior in ’68, when I celebrated, when I was in school, I celebrated the November 28, when one of my excellent students, Mirvete Badivuku Pantina, today a Ph.D., learned the poems of Lasgush Poradeci, “Bjenë Telat” [Fallen Strings]. It talked about November 28, the Independence of Albania which was independence for us too, but an unexperienced independence because we didn’t dare even mentioning it, not even Albania or the flag. And in ‘68 I celebrated it in every classroom, the girls dressed up, Xheraldina also in ‘68 recited the poem about Skanderbeg. She was dressed in a red dress with the black eagle on the side. Also my students, headed by Myrvete, Myrvete Badivuku…went from classroom to classroom, without asking permission from the principal. The principal was a political person, he always followed politics and naturally he defended, don’t mention the cause, he defended his position as principal. I paid no attention. It was celebrated there and we had….there were those who said, “What is this? How can you mention Albania?” and it became a municipal problem, it went even further to Kosovo [provincial level]. They formed a committee for differentiation [purging committee], because I was a member of the party, but interestingly some said, “You, who belonged to the party?” I said, “It was more difficult for us, because we were in the in the party, to defend our issues, our own cause. We were confronted with big problems and they fired me from work.” As it happened.
The committee was formed, but Albanians too were in politics. They knew that what happened was not supposed to happen, and since we have intellectuals, they did their job. I had great support from the writer Azem Shkreli, I respected him as an artist. He aimed to have me fired from my job in every discussion. When you were fired from the party, you were automatically fired from your job. This was an undisputed help from Azem Shkreli whom I thank. Although he is not alive now, he is one of the excellent figures of our literature. And later we experienced other things.
I also reacted when the Milošević’s regime was so cruel, that it had an impact on our educational system, eliminating everything Albanian, bringing in more teaching hours in Serbian than Albanian, it was 1981, when the youth mobilized, the youth was always revolutionary (smiles). Thus party meetings were held, differentiations [purges], all the things against our people. I defended, I openly defended our people, the students movement of 1981. Defending them at that time meant that you signed your own firing, for being arrested. However, there was a good part of Albanians who didn’t belong to the leadership, [the leadership] was very cruel, and were also very strict. The organizers, including professor Emin Fejza, whom I respect a lot, were the organizers of the students movement and of the youth of Vushtrri. That too went, that too passed, I was a deputy principal, so I was fired from my job, I remained without a job until 1986. I wasn’t much bothered by this, it is interesting, because I expected that when you do a certain action you know there will be consequences. For me it was not a holiday, I continued my education in post graduate studies in pedagogy, that I had finished earlier in Pristina, I studied literature and language in the faculty of philosophy.
What this means is that Serbs were not at peace, they said, “This one was fired but she is studying.” So they wanted to deny me this right to study. I continued, and in 1986 we were forced, we were under pressure, we were forced, my daughter was, Xheri was engaged. The intention was to move away from our close circle, as for our work it was really a small circle, so we moved to Pristina. I got a job in the elementary school Dardania for a month. It was there that that I didn’t break down not thanks to my abilities, but to my creativity, because I was fired from work for three-four years. I continued with the same zest, I did the same thing and that is how got a full time job (smiles). The riots happened later, after 1981 came 1989, when the miners entered the mines, that was a splendid act that a miner could do for the cause and for what was waiting for them in Kosovo from 1981 on.
This event was registered in the history of liberation of Kosovo, I mean when miners protested in the depth of the mines against the violent policy of Serbia towards Kosovo and the Albanians of Kosovo. So while they were down there in the mines without food, without light, without enough air, I started organizing, I thought, we have to show solidarity, and within 24 hours I organized to stay in school without eating. All Albanians agreed, but there were also Serbs there but they stayed aside, being upset and waiting to see what was going to happen. We got organized, I was the initiator, myself and a secretary who helped me a lot, I can’t remember her name unfortunately. She was a wonderful woman, a good worker. Then I wrote a telegram that was sent…It still exists at our television in 1991, it existed, and it was called “telegram to Radio Pristina.” Naturally this activity was noticed by the Municipal Committee of Pristina, and so different hurdles began around the firing of the entire team that fought for our cause, that showed solidarity with the miners.
Besides that, I organized help for the children of the miners who were still in the depths of the mines, the children who were left outside, meaning the families without any income. It was March 8, when we met and proposed….not a single child was allowed to bring a carnation to the teacher or any of the modest gift they used to bring. The money would go to the children of the miners, it was decided to give a gift to the children of the miners. I mean, it was small help, I can say, a symbolic help of our support. In 1989, once there was also my mother there, my mother had come to visit from Ulqini, she knew about the problems that were following me, and I went to school. The principal was waiting by the door of the school and he forcefully said, “You can’t enter the school.” I said, “Allow me, today I will hand in the registry.” He said, ”Out, you have no right.” It was a violent leadership, let me not mention their names, because they were in the service of the government who practiced oppression over the majority of Albanians and education in Albanian. So he said, ”You can leave the school premises immediately, you can leave the school.” Two teachers escorted me out, they taught in the morning shift, my shift was in the afternoon, with the fifth graders, the sixth graders etc. I turned proudly, and said, ”It is surprising…” to the principal, two brothers were teachers of geography, I said, ”It is surprising….” I think one of the brothers, Azem, ”Surprising is,” he said, ”aren’t you upset?” I said, ”Why should I be upset, did I do anything wrong that they fired me? I would get upset… if I did something bad against my people, against a human being. I am not upset at all.” The minute I opened the door, my mother from a corner went, ”Did they get rid of you?” (smiles). I said, ”Yes mother. They got rid of me, but I don’t care that they got rid of me. I know why I am mobilizing, it is for our cause.”
So this was 1989, and our institutions became more aware and those in the leadership took a stand, they already began… that something terrible was happening in Kosovo, all the people of Kosovo mobilized, and they told me to complain, definitely. Zekeria Cana came, because he was in the Council for Human Rights, he got all the information, what did the police do when they left the demonstrations to return to work. Police tortured Mimoza. In the last promotion they had of the documentary for the Buçinca, she declared, “We were fired, but let our teachers return to school.” And what did the police do? They tortured Mimoza. It took her a month to heal. They also tortured the students.
Later it also happened that I had already fulfilled all the conditions for retirement, but I wasn’t going to retire before retirement, so the issue ended up in court. Two excellent judges performed their job well, that was good work, patriotic work. Within three months they returned me to school and what happened? They said, “You have the permission to go, today you must begin work. You won the court’s decision, and the court’s procedures.” Then, I went and approached the abusive ones who were still there. One of them had his niece substitute for me, his sister’s daughter. She had the registry in her hands and was heading to the classroom where I used to teach, because she was substituting me in all my classes. I said, “Can you give me that registry?” She said, “Please, can I teach only today?” Then I said, “Absolutely not, it’s impossible, not today, out of here {points the door with her finger}, the registry is mine.” What her uncle did to me, I did to her. I was sorry, but she wasn’t doing her duty, because she shouldn’t have accepted this job when someone had been removed for the national or the Albanian cause. Hence I said, “No, but you can stay anywhere in the halls, but you can’t enter the classroom, because this is my schedule.” I took the registry and entered, the children were very happy that I had returned to class after three months. Then I left, because by then I had 38 years of service, I mean, I was 55 years old, and at 55 I retired, I retired in 1991.
However, I was very connected with the cause of education even though I was retired, and they wanted to apply programs in the school I was teaching, and there was a rally against the programs that the Milošević government applied. So someone had to talk, had to talk in front of everybody, in front of parents, in front of students…in other words, they were closing the school. One part of the building was already divided, it was divided so that two-thirds of the building was reserved for 500 students and one-fourth of the building was left for two thousand students. So, I started my talk, because those in the leadership didn’t dare to interrupt my speech. Professor Pajazit Nushi was present, he listened from afar while I was talking with anger and very emotionally. So I stopped teaching, but never distanced myself from teaching, and so I retired in 1991.
The arrival of my third grandson Lurni was a great happiness for me. From there I went to the maternity ward of Gllogovc. When I saw in what conditions the maternity ward was, I organized help such as maternal slippers, I secured gowns, I secured sheets that they didn’t have, you can imagine. All that through the help of people, I always knew how to use donors’ help, even when it was small, but it did exist. So the moment I visited my grandson in Gllogovc, which is now called Drenas, I brought this help, and went straight to the respected doctor, whom I was very grateful to, Selim Krasniqi, the gynecologist. He was in pathological gynecology, he had an incident with Xheri, it was one of the incidents that I can’t mention, he helped Xheri when she gave birth to Ledri.
When I gave all that help, he was amazed by my gesture. Not that I did this for my grandson, because my grandson was being released, not that it was his birth, it was during my visit of my grandson that I saw in what condition others were and the maternity ward of Gllogovc was. All the young pregnant women didn’t dare to go to our central hospital, the main maternity ward in Pristina. But they gave birth in local maternity wards, because they were afraid that something could happen. Even the doctors had forgotten the Hippocrates’ oath, one worked under oppression, or there was the suspicion that births wouldn’t end they way they were supposed to. This is what happened to my daughter-in-law Suzana, she is a very good ophthalmologist, I love her very much (smiles). When she gave birth to her second child, there was the daughter of Hajredin Ukella, whom I respected very much, he was a medical expert. So the baby was born… and there I saw the devastated condition of the maternity, she suffered after this, and we took the baby…
All this activity that I called more patriotic than political, however, takes on the characteristics and the nuances of politics, but politics in favor of my community, in favor of Kosovo, in favor of Albanians… and what they experienced every day. So, together with a group of women with whom I worked in school, we joined the Democratic League of Kosovo [LDK], we were received by late professor Fehmi Agani. This was not some kind of party for me, but it was a people’s movement since it was the first registered party and it still exists. These were the last moments of the destruction of Yugoslavia. So the Democratic League of Kosovo was registered, I told you earlier that this was a people’s movement, completely a people’s movement. There, where the center of my activities was visible, there, where I was known for the school, the resistance, the removal from work, all this made me still active and engaged….don’t let me say it, because I have never said it…engaged in politics. However, along with the oppression and the violence that was imposed on us, this was a politics with a precise program, in other words, it was a program without violence. You know the first President was Ibrahim Rugova, whom they called a pacifist, and we continued peacefully. Then other efforts followed, a stronger movement was needed to move on. Thus, the Liberation Army of Kosovo was formed, which bursted our movement and sealed, in other words, with international help, it sealed the destiny of Kosovo today.
I worked on women’s empowerment without sparing myself. We had a President, however the President was not present because she went to Germany for her postgraduate studies, so as Vice President I led the Forum [Women’s Forum in the LDK] until 1997, and there I finished my “political” life, if I can call it that way, because the patriotic part still continues. In 1993 another idea was born from different visits of women’s organizations from all over the world, American, European, who said that a Women’s Forum must…because women were under the party leadership’s tutelage. Did we need another organization? There was Motrat Qiriazi, there was Mother Theresa, only those two organizations, one was humanitarian and Motrat Qiriazi was focused on education. So I got an idea and said, “Can we do something? Form an organization that deals only with women?” I thought all institutions were destroyed like the educational institutions, those of culture and art were destroyed, so together with Shukrije Gashi and Xheraldina-Xheri, we decided to create an association.
This was an idea I presented to Shuki and Xheri, we all agreed and they helped me in creating this organization called, Group of Artists and Education Veterans. We had our programs where the main program of the artists’ group was art, while for the education veterans it was education. This was a great combination, because both fields of those associations were destroyed, and they are close to one another, without education we can’t have culture. We established specific programs, and we worked in all Kosovo’s communities, we also began in all ethnic lands abroad {counts with her fingers}, Ulqini, Skopje, I mean Macedonia, Preshevo,[1] you know that it is still in the claws of Serbia, I am very rough when I say claws, but in all these ethnic parts… we established one contact, if not physical it was spiritual, we mobilized and were very successful. We created and executed about 120 events, exhibits, and different concerts in all these regions.
Thus, the Artists’s and Education Veterans’ Group at that time did an excellent job, because they gathered all these artists in one place, then later through their contribution they produced a great deal in painting, poetry, and music. We had composers such as Pranvera Badivuku, or the painter Miradije Ramiqi, also a poet, we had poets such as Shukrije Gashi together with Xheraldina and education veterans such as Veronika Mjeda, Vera Dino and Fakete Kusari, who followed me until 2006, Fakete was my right hand in promoting the education of Albanian women. This was the transition of my life from politics as political language to civil society. This was a non-governmental organization. But our work never stopped because our intention was the liberation from Milošević’s ruthless claws, and the violence he imposed on the Albanian population.
However, I told you all these 15 women were there, and they did all this work connecting, connecting in one place all these lands that we thought were ours, all the Albanian lands, not only physically but also spiritually. We were also in Albania, Albania maybe didn’t have our problems, because these were Albanian lands inside former Yugoslavia. The problems of the Albanian women were of a completely different nature, the problem of the women in Kosovo and other ethnic lands that were all over, were completely different, because we were experiencing… at least they were free in their own country. They had social problems for the liberation of women, but they had it easier, and now they have it easier than we have it. We are free, a new country, but it moves with steps…we must move with safe steps, validate these safe steps with the politics that we conduct with those who are in decision making. I believe we don’t have to lose our hope for what we worked for. We shouldn’t get into a political analysis, because I don’t like to do that, but I look at everything with a critical eye, how I can react, it is…I react where my social circle is. In the framework of my contribution, the focus I found in education, there, that was my politics, working for women’s education and advancement.
Thus, I mean politics, I abandoned politics but not the work in the association, we continued in this NGO on the issue of the advancement of women, of women’s position and their liberation from the chains of patriarchal mentality, and the heavy shackles of the Milošević regime. When we had discussions at the Forum, I noticed the “men” factor, I noticed…”Now we don’t have time to think about women’s position,” something like that, “because we have a national goal.” But our work for national liberation ran along parallel lines, I mean, we were one force realizing all the goals that we had, like men, like women, which we proved with the presence of women in the liberation war, in the KLA. I mean, we showed that we were capable to carry even weapons. But we practically worked with the pen, meaning, there was also a slogan with the pen, this slogan of Motrat Qiriazi, “With the pen in Europe.”
This was our concern, to liberate women from centuries old shackles with that pen, because it was an advancement, and to prepare independent Kosovo for equality, or for the higher education of women, for the liberation of women, in order to catch up with Europe, because we belonged to Europe, but unfortunately, we were the Balkans, historically the Balkans. Therefore, I thought it absurd when one of them was and still is a parliamentarian, I don’t want to mention his name but he seems conservative, it is unacceptable that today when we have obtained the liberation of Kosovo…”Leave women’s issues,” because women’s issues are women’s problems, can you imagine that. But I wasn’t surprised because a patriarchal family brought him up, and he thought that we could get to Europe that way. But it is obvious, that with this gender balance, not that we overdid it, we didn’t overdo it at all when we talk and discuss, but it has become fashionable for men to say, “Yes, we too are for gender equality.” When they entered the house, a woman was a woman, and a man was a man again inside the house. We talk the talk but we don’t do what needs to be done for gender equality.
So my life begins now in a non-governmental organization that suits me very much, because I also are of an age that I don’t want to deal with politics. My age didn’t allow me, but I also never wanted to get involved, to become active, so I can appeal to our women to be educated, smart and not be fired. Maybe we begin with a non-governmental organization, but slowly, step by step, this can become a springboard to move into politics, because when I said this to the President, I was very happy that the President gave me the Presidential medal for my merits, I was happy that a woman gave me that, I said to her that we will conquer, maybe it is harsh to say “conquering” but we can’t say “grabbing.” Aware of our strength, we will take all these posts, also decision making posts. And we will take everything, all institutions, but this is what Kosovo seeks today, it seeks Europe, we don’t do it for Europe, we need that this woman exists, we need to move forward side by side to men.
Mainly, my work didn’t end. I say this, after what happened to Kosovo, what was expected to happened to Kosovo in 1998, in 1999, it happened! It was not unexpected, because it included all Yugoslavia. The destruction of Tito’s Yugoslavia began with Kosovo, and it ended with Kosovo, as it happened. So what should we do as a group, should we deal with art exhibits? With what? So we, especially the Group of Education Veterans, focused on refugee shelter, that began in 1998, and it started when Drenica was badly attacked, Peja also with its surroundings. In 1998, and like that, I went to Ulqinj every year for three months, in 1998 together with a great woman…I say she was great, but I was the initiator of Anima, an organization in Ulqinj, Doctor Zylfije Gjoni Duraku, who did a lot for sheltering families from Drenica, from the surroundings of Peja. We sheltered families whose heads were women, because the men were at the front, or they had fled somewhere, for three months. When we saw that the heads of the households were men we didn’t shelter them. Our task was sheltering women and children.
We did a great job thanks to the organization Anima, but professor Mejreme was also with the organization Anima, she was originally from Ulqinj, three of us were from Ulqinj, including Fahri who helped us. He was always available with our car to help sheltering children and women, especially pregnant women. At the maternity ward, gynecologist Zylfije Gjoni played a great role. In the end, we decided, because I was also in Kosovo, to use the villas in Shtoj, because there are many villas in Shtoj owned by Kosovars. With one order, I don’t know how and where I got that courage (smiles) I said, “We came here…” everyone was on vacation while Kosovo was burning, in 1998 Drenica was on fire, especially Peja’s surroundings, Gjakova. I said, “We came here on vacation, all of you give us the keys of the villas, today the commission says so.” All Kosovars gave us their villas, they opened them to the refugees from Drenica, all of them were sheltered in all our villas.
The first example was mine, I had a family from Komoran and my villa was small, modest, it only had two rooms, however, a large family and all others were sheltered there. Muharem Gashi, Emine Gashi, gynecologist, Talat Gjinolli, all became part of this clique, Agron …Not to mention the others who were outside… on the hills by the sea, or behind, Lower Shtoj, also Upper Shtoj. And this way all these families were sheltered, we found foreign donors who had noticed that some women were sheltering Kosovars. This is what they said, not Drenica…but Kosovars. We collected money, we have written it all down, whom we gave to and how much. Fahri was always in charge of logistics, he was always able to soften tensions, and to give a shoulder to those family by standing by them. Then the time came and we had to go, I didn’t get a chance to go to Ulqinj, they expelled my family and me, so we went to Struga.[2]
As I have said earlier, I was mainly focused on literacy and the education of girls in rural areas. It wasn’t easy even before the war, now after the war the work that we did as a team – because I collaborated with a colleague of mine, a veteran in literacy, Fakete Krusani, who followed me all the time step by step, but mostly we had the support of my husband Fahri – wasn’t easy, but it was a satisfaction for us to directly contact persons who had been momentarily removed from school. Naturally, we had to get lists of displaced people, and we got this in the education section where they were identified, we had a list of two hundred or so students, of which eighty per cent were girls who had abandoned school, but in the field we found a much larger number of girls who had abandoned school.
The first phase or the first step was to contact the families, and our job was on foot, [we walked] from house to house. We focused on a village and there we contacted the representatives of the village, then we were directed to the houses, to different neighborhoods, where we thought there were enough girls who had abandoned school. I told you, in our work the first step was to contact the families. It was a great surprise that when we contacted the families they received us very well, it was something that pleased me because where we went to convince and change the decision of the girls’ parents, the head of household was mainly for leaving school, while his wife, the girl’s mother, through gestures, tried to point to him, that he was the one, pointing at the father, who does not permit [education], but she was pro education. There were those others for whom it was convenient that girls stayed home, but mainly eighty per cent of the mothers were for education…because they weighed their life, what she had achieved without an education, and she didn’t wish that for her children, her daughters.
So when we visited houses door to dood, we met reactions, resistance, but before the war we motivated the heads of the household at one point because we were…before, before the war, we had jobs. Milošević’s regime was so harsh, and Milošević’s goal was to close schools, I mean, there were two main factors, there was illiteracy, but Milošević’s plan was the Albanian cultural-educational genocide. No one wanted to send the girls to school. “All right,” I said, “you are in the program that Milošević is imposing in Kosovo. He closed our schools, because he knew that you would be helping him by not letting your daughters go to school.” “No,” he said, “ I am not in Milošević’s program, I am against it. I love free Kosovo, I want to be free from this harsh regime.” “Then,” I said, “you are helping them with your words.” While talking (smiles) and while…naturally we were very careful, we were tactful about how we talked to him. Finally we agreed that, “If letting my daughter go to school is helpful for the liberation of Kosovo, here she is, take my daughter” (smiles). What I mean is that we had to break everything with a hammer, little by little, this was a patriarchal mentality, not a little, but patriarchal enough, that a girl doesn’t have to be educated, and add to that checkpoints, lack of security, there was no freedom of movement.
However, we secured an escort for those girls all the time during their schooling, therefore it was good that we agreed that the girls continued their education, although the deadline for the admission tests had passed. They normally had to take an admission test, but the deadline had passed for them to enter high school’s first year. We had an understanding with the principals of the high schools when at one point we sent 37 girls, and it was about time, the end of October. We worked on an agreement, and they accepted the girls and those girls went to different schools. They finished high school and 22 of them went to university, we guaranteed scholarships for those girls from different local donors, all these girls whom we encouraged, whom we empowered with high school education, we secured funds from local donors. Galica Tours and Saraci Tours, which were there before the war, they gave girls a booklet with a photo, signed by the Education Veterans’ Group, and when a girl showed that booklet, she didn’t have to pay even 50 cents, dinars were in circulation then.
So, in one year we helped about 92 girls, 92 girls went to school, because there were drop outs even from elementary and high school in the municipality of Vushttri. We did this in 67 villages of the municipality of Vushtrri. It was a difficult time because we had to talk with families and the heads of households, and often the heads of the households were men. Then we talked on the side and convinced the girls, because the inept signal that was given by the head of household, who was uneducated, was, “I don’t agree.” She knew the climate that reigned in the house about education, and we convinced her that she had to fight for her life, not to confront the parents, but that she had to convince them with different arguments that her life had to change from that of her mother’s generation and other generations.
So we succeeded in sending about 910 girls to high school and then university. This was what concerned formal education, there we had access to formal education. Informal education was the eradication of illiteracy, we provided different courses such as…we opened an informal literacy center where English could be studied, also tailoring could be studied, and health, the health of young girls and young mothers. The English courses enabled the girls, if they graduated from high school, to secure a job later, because English was the first requirement to get employed, so girls were able to earn their personal means and with these very earnings girls gained independence. If a girl were economically independent and earned her money, she didn’t need anyone to help her because in some ways, in some ways she won her independence, regardless of the fact that one must always answer to someone, especially to the head of the household, even if one earns money or for every act, one must always answer to the head of household.
Thus, we [educated] about 1800 girls, now I am talking about the period after liberation, after the liberation of Kosovo, which was destroyed completely, economically destroyed, because we witnessed the situation of Kosovo after liberation. We had problems because it changed…Many different changes occurred, now the schools were not eight grades long, they added a ninth grade. We had a problem right there, taking girls to ninth grade classes, because there were many centers in different points where girls had to go. Girls had to travel, they needed money for traveling, for example one Euro, so they could go and come back. They started to leave school, especially ninth grade. This was one problem, at that moment it was a very serious problem, and we started an awareness campaign for girls, that they definitely had to continue wherever they were, they must continue their education. What I mean, with the ninth grade, school was nine years long, then we had many problems, but thanks to local donors again we secured funding for the girls to travel for free (smiles), but later, luckily later, this issue was fixed.
It was the time when girls left school because they had to travel, they had to travel to another village or other centers, mainly centers that were in Vushtrri, in the city of Vushtrri. There were no ninth grade classes in the villages, but thanks to the system, thanks to educational sections, that we were free now, we implemented the new reform, I mean, that one girl could go till ninth grade. Ninth grade classes opened in every school that had only eight grades, and so we had no problem there, I mean, this problem was solved. Now we had a problem, our problem was that these girls had to continue their high school education, although in the beginning, before continuing, these girls had taken a break and had not gone to school, so they had lost a year in a few months, so again we focused on these girls who had stayed behind for half a year or three or four months and couldn’t attend ninth grade. But with the support and understanding of the ninth grade, we managed to bring the girls in, so they could continue their ninth grade education, it was not eight grade any more, it was ninth grade. Now, the problem was, how to bring all these girls to high school.
I must say that in Vushtrri there was a gymnasium, also a technical school and a professional school, so we went to ninth grade in order to graduate, I am talking only about girls. So we found the means for girls’ high school education. We found a class, there could have been twenty girls, ten girls, 15 girls… among them there were girls who said from the start, “I can’t afford to get educated because I don’t have the means.” There were girls whose parents agreed, they agreed, but they didn’t have the means. So we concentrated on making sure that these girls did not leave school, and the main concern about securing different means was transportation.
As I said, the same donors as before the war continued to fund these girls even after the war, in one word, it was the funds from donors that allowed them to travel to high school. We were very successful, I said earlier we registered 910 girls in school. When it came to non-formal education, about 1800 girls went through our center for non-formal education, and learned English, computer skills, and tailoring, even tailoring…they all had to go through an examination committee. But we didn’t have the authorization to issue diplomas to those girls, we only gave verification letters. So with those verification letters they continued their second level of English, computer skills, and they were accepted in the English course, computer skills or tailoring. They were accepted so they could continue and later they earned a diploma. At that time, permanent waves for hair, haircuts, and all this, was fashionable, but I didn’t practice this much, even though I had offers, donations, my job was or my organization was specialized, I never accepted a single donation where formal or non-formal education were concerned. So this is how 1800 girls passed through the main center of formal and informal education.
The World Conference in Beijing was in September 1995, when women’s groups from America such as the women’s group STAR, STAR PROJECT, talked with women involved in activities, talked to women of Kosovo, they did not meet with party members, they met with civil society. It was the Women’s Center, it was this STAR PROJECT that existed as a unit in Pristina, but also we of the Women’s Forum, on the basis of the Women’s Forum, which I led for three years, that I was elected to participate in the World Conference in Beijing. We were a non-governmental category, seven or eight women, the Women’s Forum was financed by the Democratic League, while these other groups were financed by other international women’s organizations, mainly American.
We had an opportunity to meet all the women from developing and transitional countries like ours, where the same political climate reigned. We found a lot of support, but we were in the non-governmental section [of the conference], but Hillary Clinton was, not momentarily, but with a delegation, in the governmental section. But we couldn’t have access to that section of the conference because we were not accepted as a country, it was illusory to think that we had won, that we had won citizenship and separation from Serbia that fast. But Sevdije Ahmeti was one of the activists who was sponsored by Americans, and she had a rich documentation of what was happening to women and children. Because here the program was about the violence that was imposed by the harsh Serbian regime, the violence against women and children, and she had enough material and contacts with American collaborators who were interested in women and children issues in Kosovo, so, thanks to the actions of her friends and collaborators, she officially, publicly presented plenty of material at the World Conference of Women in Beijing.
In this non-governmental section, she conducted workshops and held many different sessions that were attended…there was a special workshop about Kosovo. Edita Tahiri was present there, while the moderator was Sevdije Ahmeti. Edita spoke in that workshop, Edi Shukriu also spoke, I guess we should have known how to behave, but we didn’t know, it was something new for us (smiles). We should have spoken more about what was happening to women and children in Kosovo, as I was told by Julie Mertus when we returned to Kosovo. She said, “Your workshop failed.” Surprised, I said, “Why?” She said, “Some women were supposed to talk, many women talked.” We had much experiences as activists, we had daily experiences in the field. We should have talked more about concrete events than what was happening in Kosovo.
However, our voice was heard at the conference and the conference lasted one week. Our work continued… this was, we cannot say it was our political work, mainly we focused on the position of women in Kosovo at a time in which a woman experienced double violence because her child was killed before her eyes, her husband killed before her eyes. So the violence that a woman experienced during the Milošević’s regime was indescribable.
And after the war of course we didn’t stop working because there was the need after the destruction of Kosovo, the complete economic destruction, it was a catastrophe, there was the need to continue working with those girls’ education, continuing their education meant their empowerment, not to be left without high school education, and our goal was that those girls go to university. It wasn’t easy because after a survey that we, our organization, conducted in 2005, sponsored by FDI [Foreign Direct Investments] from America, we understood that we no longer had problems with the patriarchal mentality. We were happy that the heads of the households had understood education, that girls’ education was necessary, but another factor came up as a result of the survey that we conducted, interviewing heads of households in fifty villages, it came up that for about eighty-two per cent it was the economic factor.
We now had a greater concern, how to stimulate these girl and how to address economic concerns, this was the basis for education. Again local donors came through, we secured clothing for the girls because families were destroyed, especially villagers were completely destroyed, their houses, their wealth, everything they had, everything had gone flat. We also secured transportation means, clothing and education means, these three problems were covered so the girls didn’t have any excuse not to continue education (smiles), we made it again. We saw that in some families the girl skipped school, because we followed, we followed her high school education all the time, we visited the families because she was not going to school. I monitored the girls, those that we brought to school, we monitored them all the time, how was their success going and everything.
When we noticed that some girls were missing school, or were absent for days in a row, we immediately took the address and went to their home, and while talking to the father he said, “I have only one Euro,” he said, “one coin, but I have a son, and my priority is my son.” And we saw how the girl was abused, independently from what her parents were thinking, as I said earlier, the [patriarchal] mentality had gone and it was a great pleasure for us. However, if he had one coin, he would give it to the son and the girl still would not…because they believed that she, the girl, the future of that girl was not in the family, because she would go to another family and would extend another family and it was not important whether he took care of her or not. But the boy, he will secure the head of household tomorrow or after tomorrow, in his old age, will secure his living, it was this in fact. So we reacted and said, “If you don’t have money for the girl, we will secure clothing and transportation thanks to our local donors.”
It was unbelievable, this issue of local donors, because we didn’t have many businesses, we didn’t have businesses throughout Kosovo, there were small businesses, however, whatever they were, they were able to support girls’ education, to give their help, and to sponsor them. This encouraged us, this donors’ reaction, because now, in the last five years, we have developed some businesses, even very big businesses with large profits. It made me think, why all these donors gave and gave money? Why couldn’t we have an epicenter? That epicenter could be a fund, this was an idea that circled in my mind all the time giving me courage and donors’ help encouraged me. A fund should be created for the girls’ education, for all these girls in villages, because we were focused all the time, villages were our focus, because the bigger needs and bigger destructions were there, but there were also in the cities. However, even the girls with average economic condition were abused the same. They didn’t go to school. For that category of girls we had to create the idea of establishing a fund. My husband agreed with me, and with his help we did miracles in the field, because he was always ready to support me, because he also came from the world of education, he was an academic by profession. However, the educational process never had…because he was an expert in demand, so I always had his support and even the good reputation that he had in the environment in which we worked. Our work didn’t not only occur in the municipality of Vushtrri, but in all the region of Mitrovica, and the region of Mitrovica included Mitrovica, Skenderaj, and Vushtrri.
A very special occasion is when we had health training about basic women’s and young girls’ health, we had that in Vllahi, which is a village in beautiful Bajgora, with such a view, it was a pleasure to visit those places, they are so beautiful. I didn’t visit Switzerland, but I think these parts are more beautiful than Switzerland, those views that I saw in Bajgore, Vllahi. So we invited young women and girls who didn’t complete high school, we invited them to our informal education center. The first day we registered nine girls who had finished eighth grade, but had not attended ninth grade. We were astonished, we got the list, we went and all followed courses of basic health for women and girls in the schools. We knocked on the principal’s door, and I said, “Do you know that nine girls here in Vllahi are not attending ninth grade?” He said, “I am sorry I …” He talked to me and Fakete, the three of us came into the office, and he said, “We know that they are not…” He continued, “What can we do? They have to go to Mitrovica,” he said, “to travel to Mitrovica.” Those girls didn’t have the means to go to Mitrovica, and those who know the area know how it is to travel to Bajgora and Vllahi. So we went, Fahri, Fakete and myself, Fahri knew well even those in the [education] department in Mitrovica, so he explained the problem. Then immediately, I don’t remember who was the one who was in charge of education, undertook the first step, and can you imagine, after one month he secured the educational personnel and opened a ninth grade class. So now, when those who finished eighth grade in June, which were a few girls, it was necessary to create a parallel class, and for that it was required to have at least 15 students, but only nine were left without…So the parallel class opened the following year, and those nine girls, even though they took a one year break, continued ninth grade. In other words, those nine girls did not end up without a ninth grade education. So when they finished school, they could register to high school, because with only an eighth grade education one couldn’t register to high school. This was a very special case, but which we completed successfully.
[1] Municipality in Southern Serbia, were Albanian are demographically dominant.
[2] Town in Macedonia by lake Ohrid.