Stories that deserve to be heard

By Nadia Nan

In the last four weeks, all I could think about was Peace Lab. Kosovo and its people were constantly on my mind and I have talked a lot about this course with everyone around me. My friends and family all knew that I was following this course, as I was sharing stories and insights with them on a daily basis. It almost felt like they were part of this trip with me. In the beginning, their questions were along the lines of ‘How is the Kosovo-thing going?’, but this changed over the weeks to ‘How was the meeting with UNMIK? Did they say something about the territorial exchange?’ and ‘I read on NOS about Thaci being indicted on war crimes charges, what does this mean?’. I was no longer the only person who was completely absorbed in Kosovo, people around me were affected by my stories and enthusiasm as well…

The project was an important part of my Peace Lab experience. Together with Hanna, I worked on the online exhibition ‘The evolution of women’s empowerment in Kosovo’. We have collected three exceptional and inspiring stories, from the 1950s, 1990s and one from 2020, and included them in our virtual museum. 

 

The first room of our online exhibition is about Burrnesha, people who are at birth labelled as women and who later decide to live as men. Burrnesha in Kosovo are viewed with a lot of respect and seen as strong, brave and powerful people. In the next room of our exhibition, there is the second story covering the ‘Bread for Drenica women and children’ protest. On March 16, this march was organized by female activists in 1998. The reason for organising this protest was that the region Drenica, in central Kosovo, was under siege by Serbian forces. Women, young and old, marched from Pristina to Drenica, holding bread in their hands, symbolizing their solidarity with the women and children in Drenica who were suffering because of a lack of food. The third story is on information boards in the garden of the exhibition. This part of the museum is about the women of the feminist activist art collective Haveit, who are challenging the patriarchal Kosovar society. The last four information boards of our exhibition show quotes from our online meetings and follow-up conversations and provide background information.

Working on this project made me think and realise that what we were focusing on was not only about Kosovo. Many things that are present in Kosovo and what people experience, can be found in the Netherlands as well. What has changed for me is that I started thinking critically about whose history we are telling. Working on this project and focusing on women’s forgotten activism in Kosovo made me realise that the same discussion is going on in the Netherlands. History in general, depends on perspectives and to me, this is closely related to the current discussions in the Netherlands about, for example, decolonizing the curriculum at schools and universities. Building this new history by including different perspectives showed me the importance of role models and representation in order to inspire people, especially younger generations.

I personally was struggling with the stories sometimes. All of these stories have the fact in common that they are related to the severe oppression women faced, and still are facing, in Kosovo. The stories in our exhibition together create a history of women’s empowerment, but they also are examples of gender-based violence, the erasure of history, and the lack of visibility of women as active agents. It is painful that Burrnesha need to change their gender identity in order to gain rights. The women who organized and participated in the march in 1998 are not recognized and their acts are silenced and forgotten, even though these women stood up and raised their voices. Haveit is receiving death threats because of their work and the Kosovar police are not doing anything to protect them. I sometimes found it difficult to take a step back and take a deep breath, to let go of these harsh realities.

However, I want to end on a more positive and hopeful note. A shift is happening, things are starting to move. In the last years, Kosovars are making an effort to draw attention to the silenced stories and forgotten activism of women. In this way, people are adding a new perspective to the history of the country and acknowledging the value of stories and amplifying voices. By doing this, generations are able to build upon each other's work in order to create change. 

There still remains a lot to be changed, as this development is a continual process of fighting battles, but the content of these battles changes. Analysing the evolution of women’s empowerment showed me that every generation has its own way of thinking and passes on their beliefs to the next generation. The younger generation is raising their voice in a different way than that their grandparents and parents did. Haveit is actively fighting the conservative society and exercising their agency, even though their parents are convinced that it is impossible to change the patriarchal structures of Kosovo. Every generation builds upon the efforts of the generation before them and in 2020, Haveit cannot be silenced anymore. The stories of Kosovar women deserve to be heard.

Link to our online exhibition:
https://www.artsteps.com/view/5ef06e8c33af2a5f918327e0