Violence against women

By Madeleine Doan 

After four weeks, Peace Lab has come to an end. We spent the final days of this course working on our final projects and presenting these projects to each other. The final project was a creative project in which we were asked to raise awareness about Kosovo in some way. For our own project, my group  decided to focus on the topic of feminism and women’s rights and politics in Kosovo and more specifically, we aimed to raise awareness about sexual violence that occurred during the Kosovo war from 1998-1999. We opted for a podcast as it is an accessible medium that does not require much previous academic knowledge from the listeners. This makes it perfect for raising awareness and stimulating people to think about this topic that might not come through as often in daily life. In the podcast, we discussed the insights from interviews with various organizations and our own perspectives. 

Violence against women is predominant in the Balkans, where most societies are very patriarchal. Women have also been directly affected by the wars and instabilities in the region, as many have been victims of rape. In Kosovo, war-related violence, including sexual crimes such as rape, is still considered a cultural taboo. Mass rape and other forms of sexual violence committed during the war in Kosovo have created challenges for not only the estimated 20,000 victims of these crimes, but also for their families and friends, as there exists a stigma within the communities. This stigma hinders the psychological recovery of those who experienced sexual violence during the war. With our project we aimed to inform others about women’s rights and feminism in Kosovo and raise awareness for the survivors of sexual violence.

I really enjoyed watching the presentations and listening to what the other groups had come up with. Each of the group projects was so unique and creative. The projects ranged from exhibitions, to videos, podcasts and magazines and it was clear that each group had put a lot of effort into their project. 

All in all, it has been a very interesting experience and I am hoping to be able to visit Kosovo some day.