Albania: one in two women is a victim of violence, according to a UN report
Audio 02:35
March of demonstrators for the defense and protection of vulnerable women and against domestic violence, March 8, 2019 in Tirana.
AFP - GENT SHKULLAKU
By: Louis Seiller
7 min
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and on this occasion, RFI is mobilized and offers debates, guests, analyzes and reports on our branches and our website.
Report in Albania where one in two women is a victim of domestic violence.
Publicity
The “#MeToo” type speech liberation movements did not find much echo in this conservative and very patriarchal society.
Yet some manage to find the courage to face the stigma.
Tell your story to give courage to those who are silent.
20 years ago, Ina Kasimati chose to keep her child against the advice of her husband and her in-laws.
For almost 3 years, she suffered the ordeal under the blows of her husband.
“
Physical violence is… it's something terrible.
It's not just the violence of a moment, it's not just the violence of a year, but it accompanies you ... it accompanies you all your life.
And when you see another woman who is suffering, this violence manifests itself again in you.
"
On the brink, Ina decided to leave and raise her child on her own.
If divorces are frequent today in Albania, they are still very frowned upon in this patriarchal society where the married woman is often perceived as the “property” of the husband.
A teacher, Ina wants to change the way women see their conditions: “
You must not accept that a man will violate you.
What is this form of love
?
There is no love with violence.
A man who hits you is not a man who loves you.
"
Freeing speech and breaking taboos is the goal of the book that Elga Miter launched on the internet.
With these brushes, she gives shapes and colors to testimonies like that of Ina.
“
You don't have to wait for a woman to be murdered to remember that there is violence in families.
And that's the point of my book
: that by reading it some women say to themselves "
Ok, I'm not the only one to have experienced this, I'm not responsible for what happens to me.
"
"
Last June, thousands of young people marched through the streets of Tirana to denounce the sordid rape of a teenage girl.
Elga Miter is counting on this new generation to change things.
“
If you've decided to talk about the violence, people will look at you in horror.
But hey, things have to change.
And I very much hope that the young generation who grew up with a different mentality and more open ideas, they can bring about change.
"
One in two Albanians is a victim of domestic violence, according to a 2019 UN report.
A figure of local feminism, Sevim Arbana welcomes the recent hardening of sentences for the perpetrators of this violence.
But with a State still largely absent, it remains cautious.
“
It's awful
: one in two women
!
Physical or psychological violence… The State has never really cared about these questions!
Yet it is with laws that mentalities change.
Laws are being drafted today, but mentalities will not change immediately.
It will take at least a decade to change mentalities.
"
In one of the poorest countries in Europe, the economic consequences of Covid-19 have already had tragic effects.
Since March, the few NGOs that come to the aid of Albanian women have all noted a sharp increase in domestic violence.
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