Crossborder meetings in the Balkans

– How do you reach out to people with your message? And how does society look upon what you are doing?

Nadia, Adi and Wafa are curious. We, ten women of different nationalities, are sitting around a meeting table in a large airy room high up in a building on one of Pristina’s slopes. Outside the window, trees reach up from one of the few parks. The view over the surroundings shows how small the capital city of the newly formed state of Kosovo actually is.

– We strive to secure allies, among journalists and among the women decision-makers that exist. We work a lot on personal relationships, which is needed here. There is a suspicion against the things we work with. Many still think that feminists are people who hate men, replies Luljeta Vuniqi, head of the Kosovar Gender Studies Center in Kosovo.

The inquisitive visitors come from a number of women’s organisations in Palestine and Israel on an intensive 10-day study trip in Kosovo and Serbia. All are active in organisations supported by the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation who work for women’s rights in various ways. The purpose of the visit is to share knowledge and experience with women working with the same type of issues in the Balkans.

– Our societies may look different, but the problems facing women are much the same. Discrimination and violence against women are just a few examples, says Nadia L M Yasin from the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development in Tulkarem on the West Bank.

The discussions drift into the need for legislation to secure women’s rights and possibility of participation. Luljeta Vuniqi talks of the tough negotiations that her organisation has been part of in the drawing up of anti-discrimination legislation.

– When the draft was ready it was rejected by the government. My feelings are that politicians don’t want a law because it would entail having to admit that discrimination takes place in Kosovo.

There is no anti-discrimination law in Palestine either:

– We don’t even have a word for gender in the Arab language. Many adversaries of gender equality claim that the gender concept is a western idea that is forced upon us, explains Nadia L M Yasin. 

Chaos and isolation 

The streets below the Kosovar Gender Studies Center are one big building site. Construction work is taking place all over Kosovo. Apartment buildings, roads, bridges and hotels. Vote-catching prior to the forthcoming local elections is said to be the reason.
– It’s utter chaos. There’s no coordination, no oversight. Everybody follows their own agenda, exclaims one of the hosts for the study visit, Igo Rogova from the Kosovo Women’s Network, as we pass one of the apartment building complexes on the fringes of Pristina. 

Igo Rogova’s observation is a reflection of the new nation’s political structure, or rather the lack of it. New institutions have to be created, hopefully followed by democratic development in reborn Kosovo, a country facing great challenges and political dilemmas following years of war, oppression and political chaos. Kosovo has not yet been ratified by Serbia or Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is one of the main stumbling blocks for the political establishment and the large international presence in the country. Parts of the Serb minority in Kosovo today live in isolated enclaves, with no dealings with the rest of society.

– I identify with the chaos and complications. It’s the same at home, sighs Naila I O Zaqout from the Women’s Affairs Centre in Gaza, during a visit to the Ruka Ruci organisation that works to empower women in the Serb enclave Ugljare and to improve their possibility of meeting and integrating with other women in Kosovo.

Many women in Ugljare have not left their village for years for fear of violence and reprisals for what took place in their name during the war. The meeting with Ruka Ruci takes place in the village café, a shabby cold premises leading onto the muddy street. Pristina’s shopping mall and restaurants are only ten minutes by car but seem light years away.

Healing the war traumas 

It is freezing cold out on the street, the buses stand ticking over. Frozen delegates rush to get out of the cold that has descended in just one day. From 20 plus degrees to around five, it bites. Today’s excursion is to Gjakova in western Kosovo, the Medica organisation that has worked since the war ten years ago to support women in need of help. The organisation’s women’s centre offers everything from gynaecological checks to psychological support and activities to help the women to find their own means of support. The group sit on large soft cushions lined along the walls of the light room.

– How do you reach out to those needing help? How do you get contact with women suffering from war traumas?
Hadeel Abdo’s question is quickly translated to Albanian and gets an immediate response from the head of the centre Lola Vepriu.

– We can’t sit and wait for women to pluck up courage to come here. We seek them out, visit the villages and housing estates to inform them of our existence and what we do.

Hadeel Abdo from the Women’s Study Center in Jerusalem and the other visitors from the Middle East ask many interesting questions while reflecting over their own daily lives. In the room at the women’s centre, staff and women who take part in the various activities have gathered. The discussions cover a wide area, from methods of helping women affected by the war to how war impacts women, no matter where in the world it is.

– These women’s stories remind me of our own history. Being regarded as second class citizens and being driven out of their homes, just like us in Palestine, says Wafa Shahin Trad from Al Zahraa in Galilee, northern Israel.

Gjakova was hit hard by the war ten years ago. Igo Rogova from the Kosovo Women’s Network compares Gjakova with Srebrenica. Most of the rapes took place here during the war and Gjakova is also the place where many, many people are still looking for the remains of their nearest and dearest. Just a few weeks ago women went on hunger strike to demand the identification of skeleton parts that are stored somewhere in Pristina. For many women the lack of accountability, that war criminals are still free to walk the streets, just prolongs their traumas.

– The war is still very much alive. Hope is one thing that gives these women the power to continue, she says.

From Gjakova in western Kosovo to Mitrovica in the north, a town that was ethnically divided after the war. Today Serbs live on the north side of the short bridge over the River Ibar, and Kosovo Albanians on the other. A visit is made to the Community Building Mitrovica, which strives to reach out to young people with cultural activities across the ethnic divide. We get to hear about the Mitrovica Rock School, where all the young people go regardless of which side of the bridge they live on. Community Building Mitrovica believes in working with young people that have not yet been coloured by the ‘us and them’ mentality. There are two school systems to struggle against, two curricula that teach different historical facts.

The group takes a cautious walk over the bridge from the Centre near the bridge abutment on the Albanian side. Some think it feels rather unpleasant and quickly turn back while others take a longer stroll on the other side, where the only noticeable differences are the vehicle registration plates and the Cyrillic alphabet on the advertising pillars and shop windows.

Courage and strength 

The study visit in Kosovo was preceded by a few days in Serbia, where the women from the Middle East were guided around by the Serbian women’s network Women in Black. While there they took part in a demonstration to urge Serbia to acknowledge and take responsibility for the events in Srebrenica in 1995, and a conference on justice in the transition between conflict and rebuilding.

– After the days in Serbia my feelings are divided. I’m shocked over the strong nationalism that exists and the conditions that women’s rights activists have to work under. It’s worse than Israel. At the same time I’m impressed by their courage and strength. I’ll really try to take that with me, says Yael Ben Yefet from Community of Learning Women, emphasising how much the trip to Kosovo and Serbia has meant to her.

– Every day I think ‘how privileged I am to be able to witness this’. Being able to learn from and exchange knowledge and experience with women here means a great deal.

The conservative powers in Serbia has left an impression on most of the visitors. Adi Dagan from the Coalition of Women for Peace in Tel Aviv compares it with the situation in Israel and how the pressure to find ‘the enemy within’ increases in pace with international demands and ultimatums. Adi Dagan sees the women and the Palestinians living in Israel as the first to be affected when the pressure increases.

Nadia L M Yasin also regards the experiences from Serbia as important to bear in mind in relation to the political situation in Palestinian society.

– We are witnessing an ever-increasing gulf between Gaza and the West Bank, between Fatah and Hamas. For me the lessons from Serbia are crystal clear: we must be observant as to what’s going on at home so as not to find ourselves in the same situation.

Several of the delegates were impressed by how the women’s movement in the Balkans use storytelling as a means of reaching out with women’s knowledge and experiences of conflicts, along with art and culture to spread the message. The need for strong networks was also taken up. As the days come to an end, the delegates are tired but still curious and interested. Before it is time to say goodbye and embark for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Haifa, Nadia L M Yasin says she hopes to return to the Balkans and that the exchange with women in the Balkans continues. Wafa Shahin Trad adds:

– I’ve never been to Kosovo before. But I still feel at home. Perhaps it’s because their society still carries the scars of war, just like Israel.

Text: Anna Lithander

Photo: Ida Udovic