By Tiana Rönner
Wednesday 22 June 2022*
When signing up for a presentation on this organization, I was not sure what to expect. I have found that throughout my life, I always am most drawn to grassroots organizations, the raw and the nitty gritty of standing up for people. This deep-rooted feeling stems from school. The “cool” kids were the ones everyone was scared of, but everyone wanted to be. Popular kids are kind of like white, cis, straight men (take this with a grain of salt). Although they are not all bad, their general position in the hierarchy makes people seek their approval and their downfall at the same time. Now, it is just one step too easy to just tear down the top without actually doing any good or uplifting others. What is so beautiful about movements that fight for equality, is that in coming together from the margins, there is such huge power in rising above. 
Enormous power is not just something I witnessed at the Women’s Network in Kosovo, but also in the Center for Social Group Development. Like all organizations, the team that welcomed us at CSGD was excited, open-hearted and passionate about their work. However, one factor immediately set them apart from all other organizations: The smiles and laughter. As I recall, not a single one of us walked away from that meeting feeling down, no matter how frustrating the subject at hand really was. Pairing this seriousness with such an effortless attitude is truly admirable.
What I took away from this was something I had noticed in other situations before. Movements, emotions, laws, persons… are leaning both extreme ways at the same time. One example for this could be the bridge in Mitrovica. Everyone in the country is astonishingly aware of its existence. Throughout the trip, interviewing and talking to Kosovar citizens demonstrated that either someone talks about the bridge as if it was the gate to hell, something never to be crossed, OR someone does not care and crosses it regularly and without any worry whatsoever. Applying this concept to the LGBTQI+ community in Kosovo, there exists a very notable contrast between the legislation and legal framework, which is said to be very progressive and open, and public opinion. Even though legally, “everyone can marry everyone” this is not openly implemented, nor is it socially accepted.
Again and again I wonder whether tradition and cultural values inherently conflict with cultural change and movements. Does a patriarchal society derive all its meaning from being patriarchal, or is the culture in its carrier country much deeper, so that it cannot be touched by any social change? I want to believe that Kosovar culture is everlasting, as the sides we have seen of it are beautiful and manifold. It is heartbreaking to think that marginalized groups in this society are constantly stuck in this limbo of fighting for their own rights, standing up for themselves among people who do not accept them as they are, and at the same time having such strong emotional ties to their home country. Often, people address the fact that “outsiders” are not welcome somewhere, but it is a whole other thing if you are not welcomed as an insider, as an intrinsic part of a country.
I truly admire the work the team at CSGD is doing, and cannot believe how extremely courageous they are. At the same time I am outraged by the fact that so much courage is even required to stand up for something as simple as equality.
*Please note that the blogposts are not appearing in chronological order of the days of the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment