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Performing anger in Kosovo: Women's claim to citizenship
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Performing anger in Kosovo: Women's claim to citizenship Lura Pollozhani1 Razlovecko Vostanie 26/V/16, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Feminism Activist citizenship Kosovo Post-war Artistic activism Methods and spaces of contention
This article analyzes post-war feminist contention in Kosovo. The analysis distinguishes between two stages of feminist contention: post-war and post-independence by drawing comparisons in the methods feminist activists have used. The main emerging difference is the use of silence as a form of contention in the post-war context, and the public and predominantly artistic forms of contention of post-independence activism. I claim that by making their contention in the public sphere and actively challenging the status quo, contemporary feminists in Kosovo have sought to claim citizenship. While post-war activism was contentious it still maintained gender in the private realm whereas contemporary activism brings gender into the public sphere through acts of citizenship such as slam poems, marches, and art installations. These new methods of contention have made it possible to invent new spaces of contention and new ways of being for feminists in Kosovo which are crucial to claims of citizenship.
On 8 March 2018, three billboards with a red background and black letters appeared in the center of Prishtina.2 The billboards, posted by the art collective Haveit, noted the names of Diana Kastrati and Zejnepe Bytyqi, killed by their former spouse and current spouse, respectively. The third message ‘Edhe sa thirrje te humbura’ [How many more missed calls?], referred to the fact that both killed women had reported the abuse they had received from their partners to the police numerous times, and they had not received the necessary and required protection. (Photo 1) The billboards were placed in front of the police headquarters in Prishtina, as noted by the art collective in order to challenge their lack of response to, and protection of, the victims (Haveit, 2018a). This action represents an act of contentious politics, which intertwines the different actors, issues, and shifts that are important when analyzing the development of contemporary methods of feminist activists and feminism in Kosovo. The development of contemporary feminism in Kosovo is deeply intertwined with the past yet also breaks from it in considerable ways. It is informed by the past because it is a response to both the issues that women in Kosovo have faced in the last three decades and the methods that feminist activists have used to address them. During the 1990s, as the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was disintegrating, Kosovo citizens lost the autonomy granted to them by the 1974 constitution, which had ensured them a ‘quasi-citizenship regime’ (Krasniqi, 2010, p. 5). As of 1992, they were subject to the federal
citizenship regime of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (ibid.), which subsumed Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia. During this period, the new citizenship regime ‘de facto downgraded the position of Albanians […] and stripped them of their basic political and legal entitlements’ (ibid, 9). At first, Kosovar Albanians responded by boycotting elections and with self-exclusion (ibid.). Eventually, the repressive practices and the heightened tension between Kosovo's political elite and the Yugoslav regime led to the armed conflict of 1998 that lasted until June 1999. Štiks (2006) makes the argument that citizenship regimes in the different periods and arrangements of Yugoslavia need to be considered as an important factor that led to its dissolution. Indeed, the changing citizenship regimes and how they affected Kosovar citizens was crucial to mobilization before the war. During the 1990s the Democratic League of Kosovo's (LDK) mobilization set up its own referendum on Kosovo independence that established parallel institutions, including education and health (Krasniqi, 2010, p. 9). The Kosovo resistance constantly sought to expand their rights and ultimately to gain independence from the FRY. Within this mobilization of the Kosovar elite and citizens, feminist activism often fell in the shadow of the Illegalja [The Illegal] movement (Ahmeti in Gusia, Krasniqi, & Luci, 2016, p. 40) even though they were instrumental in mobilizing and organizing communities against the regime. During the ensuing war of 1998–9, an estimated 20,000 women were victims of rape and abuse by the forces of the Federal Yugoslav
E-mail address: [email protected]. PhD Candidate in Law and Politics at the University of Graz, working on citizenship and social movements in divided societies. 2 The three billboards are in reference to the movie ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’, written and directed by Martin McDonagh, released in 2017. The movie is about a woman that places three red billboards outside her town in order to raise attention regarding the unsolved rape and murder of her daughter. 1
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102243 Received 29 October 2018; Received in revised form 25 June 2019; Accepted 27 June 2019 0277-5395/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Lura Pollozhani, Women's Studies International Forum, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102243
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Photo 1. Haveit activists standing in front of the three billboards in the center of Prishtina. Photo by Nol Shala. Permission to show the photo obtained by Haveit.
Republic (Mari, 2015). Women activists were crucial in gathering data of reported rapes as well as providing support to victims. After the war, many feminists had hoped that their position within the political and public elites would improve. However, women's issues as well as their positions were relegated to ‘the back seat’ (Abdela, 2003; Di Lellio, 2016) as compared to the ‘high-level’ issues of state formation. Hence, following the violence women had suffered during the war, post-war violence in Kosovo continued in two ways. One is the lack of acknowledgment of the suffering that women had experienced due to the use of rape as a strategy of the forces of the FRY during the war (Kennedy-Pipe & Stanley, 2000). This can be interpreted as violence as it pushed women into spaces of silence, disregarded their needs and their vulnerability. The second way in which violence is predominant in the post-war and post-independence period is in the domestic sphere. However, I consider this violence as public violence as it is not adequately addressed by state institutions. State institutions play an important part in both experiences of violence. In the first case, institutions perpetrate violence or permit its existence. In turn, it is the lack of the institutional support and trust which defines the methods and spaces of contention in Kosovo. International actors played a key role in this period as they failed to recognize early on the importance of the inclusion of women and the resolution of their issues in the aftermath of the war (Abdela, 2003; Deiana, 2013). The issue of war-time rape and of domestic violence constitute the two issues against which younger and older feminists contend. Feminists in Kosovo have actively tried and oftentimes succeeded in including women and gender issues in government agendas and advocating for them. However, there is a considerable difference in the modes of contention applied by contemporary feminism in Kosovo, which I will try to analyze in this article. I argue that contemporary feminists in Kosovo have moved towards a shift from the private to the public sphere, thus actively claiming their citizenship in a country still in construction. In this article I will establish the contemporary methods of contention in Kosovo within a debate on citizenship. The dichotomy of a
private and public sphere has been widely examined by scholars in citizenship studies (Friedman, 2005; Volpp, 2017; Young, 1989). It is based on the premise that by relegating gender and women's experiences to the private sphere, citizenship regimes become harmful to women because the rights that they bear, are based on male characteristics (Volpp, 2017, p. 156). This makes contention by feminist activists particularly important as they seek to expand these limitations on citizenship. To show how this has been done in Kosovo, I will firstly outline methods of contentious politics in the post-war period by marking two different stages, the silent and the loud. Next, I will explore scholarly literature, and like other scholars (Di Lellio, 2016; Luci, 2002), I too treat the silence that women in Kosovo adopted after the war as contentious, not passive. Finally, I argue that although these actions were not passive they kept women in the realm of the private sphere, whereas the methods of contention adopted by contemporary feminist activists, mainly through art activism, have sought to claim citizenship in the public sphere. The new wave of contention in Kosovo is informed by, and built on, former actions by feminists in important ways; however, the new forms of contention can also be seen as a reaction to previous contentious practices. In certain ways, new methods of contention seem to develop in direct opposition to previous methods, showing a degree of ‘tiredness’ with methods which do not necessarily work for the new generation of feminists or the contemporary Kosovar context. This does not denote conflict between the activists, but rather, outlines different mobilization techniques due to differing circumstances and methods of contention. The article is based on an analysis of the methods used by contemporary feminists including analysis of the performances of the art collective Haveit; slam poetry, the 8th of March protests and campaigns (which involve a larger group of women and combine older and newer actors of contentious politics); and art installations addressing current issues of Kosovar women. I focus on the post-war period of contention because it provides an opportunity to investigate the shift between the different modes of contention. I explore pre-war instances
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of contention because they are important in building the foundation of feminism in Kosovo; however, I do not analyze them in detail. The comparative aspect of this paper focuses on the post-war period (1998–2008),3 when silence was utilized as a form of contention, and the post-independence (post-2008) period when contention became individual, public and loud. The methods which are analyzed in this article were chosen to illustrate different forms of contention that have been predominantly used in the last decade and challenge a patriarchal regime through activist citizenship. With this article, I aim to contribute to literature on feminism in the post-Yugoslav sphere by studying contemporary forms of feminism in Kosovo, which is currently lacking. While important research on the Ilegalja movement (Krasniqi, 2011; Schwandner-Sievers, 2013) and feminist activism (Gusia et al., 2016) has contributed to creating a narrative of feminism in Kosovo, there is a need to include contemporary forms of contention. This fits into the broader trend as.
Staeheli et al., ‘citizenship is continuously contested—and created—through acts of engagement’ (Staeheli, Attoh, & Mitchell, 2013, p. 104). Such acts, when they seek to break with the current order and the status quo, constitute acts of citizenship as defined by Isin and Nielsen (2008). Acts of citizenship do not have to constitute a movement, however they do need to be contentious. Sydney Tarrow notes that ‘the core of contention is the power to disrupt through the invention of innovative ways of performing protest’ (Tarrow, 2011, p. 101). Acts of citizenship are often innovative and operate within invented spaces as they have to create spaces and practices outside of the ordinary. In addition, acts of citizenship represent an engagement with the state, a claim of citizenship; whether from outsiders or insiders (as Isin notes, non-citizens can also perform acts of citizenship (Isin, 2009)) by challenging the practices of the state which are exclusionary or discriminatory. This conceptualization of citizenship as an innovative engagement with the state offers an important lens when considering contemporary feminist contentious actions in Kosovo. As the analysis will reflect, this claim to citizenship in Kosovo has been mainly achieved by acts which have sought to expand what it means to be a citizen through art activism. Adriana Zaharijević takes a similar approach when arguing that feminist activism in the former Yugoslav states should be seen under the lens of activist citizenship (Zaharijević, 2015, p. 94). Zaharijević observes three separate contexts for this feminist (activist) citizenship: 1. the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; 2. the war period of the 1990s; 3. the post-war period. She notes that feminist (activist) citizenship first appears ‘in the context of dissidence: second, in relation to belonging and borders; and contemporary feminist activist citizenship, which questions and undermines the existing citizenship order, practices and statuses, relies on political re-appropriation and re-politicization of the Yugoslav social heritage’ (ibid. p. 98). While the analysis presented by Zaharijević builds on several examinations of the former Yugoslav countries, it does not necessarily include Kosovo in the analysis. Several features noted by Zaharijević, including the dissident feminist aspect (Sparks, 1997; Zaharijević, 2015, p. 94), as well as the trans nationalism of the feminists in the Yugoslav period, which survived through the wars (Bilic, 2012; Bonfiglioli et al., 2015; Gusia et al., 2016; Miškovska Kajevska, 2017), complement well with the Kosovo case. However, there are ways in which Kosovo feminism does not fit into this framework, the most important being the embeddedness of the feminist activists in the movement for the independence of Kosovo. This aspect shows that they do not correspond to the position of ‘women have no country’ which Zaharijević highlights. The Kosovo feminist activists sought to break free of the repression of Yugoslav Federation as women and as ethnic Albanians. However, this does not reduce the trans-national aspect of Kosovo feminists and the cooperation they had with feminists of the Yugoslav space. Still, Zaharijević's claim that we should analyze feminist activism within the framework of activist citizenship (Zaharijević, 2015, p. 94) is worth pursuing. She argues that feminist activism constitutes activist citizenship insofar as it has opposed the status quo throughout changing citizenship regimes in Yugoslavia and the successor states after its dissolution (Zaharijević, 2013). When considering the case of Kosovo, the framework of activist citizenship is also the lens through which to analyze feminist contention. Namely, post-independence feminist contention in Kosovo has pushed beyond the established borders of what society is comfortable discussing in the public sphere. They have invented new spaces of contention, which is a new phenomenon in Kosovo even compared to the pre-war period (as the women activists struggled to create spaces outside of the movement for liberation). Zaharijević draws on Faranak Miraftab's dinstinction between ‘invited’ and ‘invented’ spaces (Miraftab, 2004; Zaharijević, 2013), whereby the latter constitute direct opposition ‘to authorities and the status quo’ (Miraftab, 2004, p. 1). Contemporary feminism in Kosovo resides predominantly in constructed spaces, as women activists in the post-war context shift in between the invented and the invited, mostly operating
[F]eminist studies of the region have also been largely concerned with the issues of war and nationalism. This is to a great extent due to the fact that anti-war and anti-nationalist activism has been a prominent factor of mobilization among local feminists and LGBT activists, becoming at a certain point even its distinctive feature. (Bonfiglioli, Kahlina, & Zaharijević, 2015, p. 44). By drawing upon this scholarly literature, this paper seeks to engage with literature dealing with other countries of former Yugoslavia with the aim of creating space for future comparative research. Breaking through the borders of the private Citizenship regimes have always had a conflict with concepts of gender. As Ben Revi notes, ‘citizenship has been built on gender inequality’ (Revi, 2014, p. 459). This is an argument well established in the seminal work of Iris Marion Young, ‘Polity and group difference: A critique of the ideal of universal citizenship’, where she outlines how a universal approach to citizenship, favored by the founders of the modern state, was built upon masculine experience (Young, 1989, p. 253). Hence, the image of the citizen was that of the well-off, privileged male, and everyone else had to conform to this image. Young's critique builds upon the critique of the universality of citizenship rights and highlights how within this framework women have suffered marginalization and exclusion. As Leti Volpp notes, ‘[w]hat underlay these exclusions was an unquestioned public/private dichotomy, one that consigned women to the private or domestic sphere, reserving citizenship's sphere of the public domain for men’ (Volpp, 2017, p. 156). Nira Yuval-Davis, too, highlights the way the marginalization to the private in effect marginalized women as “[i]n constructing citizenship within the realm of the political community, the traditional discourse on citizenship has excluded the ‘private sphere’ from the realm of relevance [which is why] women have been excluded from the discourse of citizenship for so long” (Yuval-Davis, 1999, p. 122). Inasmuch as citizenship is differentiated based on gender (Friedman, 2005, p. 4), it is also marked by contention. While gender and contention do not mark the only differentiations of citizenship, they have formed two strong underlying currents of shifts in citizenship practice and regimes. Namely, the boundaries of citizenship—who belongs to a state and who does not—both in practice and de jure, have shifted as a result of contention and social movements. The Suffragette movement at the turn of the 20th century constitutes such a push by expanding the boundaries of citizenship through the right to vote for women. Similarly, recent movements, such as the #Metoo movement on sexual harassment and violence, challenge practices which limit the security of women in the public and private space. According to Lynn 3 The post-war period includes the war years of 1998–1999 as it provides the context for the immediate post-war period.
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in the space of the latter as they sought to move for change through civil society and NGOs. The immediate post-war context in Kosovo featured voracious debates on justice for war crimes, particularly the issue of victims of rape, as well as on the framing of gender rights within the new citizenship regime. Anna Di Lellio notes the failure of the international courts to protect the anonymity and sensitivity of rape victims, as well as the failure of local institutions to build support for them, which led ‘women [to] quietly [retreat] to their private suffering’ (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 633). Indeed, the institutional failure to address women's vital concerns is an important variable in the story of feminist contention in Kosovo. Research has shown that there is very little trust in state institutions meant to protect women. As Kaltrina Kelmendi notes, many of her respondents ‘felt unhappy with the legal representatives, social workers, police, and other stakeholders in the protection mechanism’ (Kelmendi, 2015, p. 694). Thus the institutional failure to address women's issues is not only a trend that characterizes post-war Kosovo, but also post-independence Kosovo. Against this backdrop, Kosovo feminists have mobilized contemporary feminist actions that seeks to publicly challenge the borders of citizenship and claim it in the public space.
women’ (Zaharijević, 2013, pp. 17–8; Zaharijević, 2013, p. 97). In the immediate post-war context in Kosovo, as Di Lellio (2016) and Nita Luci (2002) have noted, feminist activists sought to address the issues of rape victims during the war. Rape victims suffered violence numerous times, as their grueling experience did not receive the required support nor seriousness (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 632) from local and international institutions. As such, women remained silent about what they had suffered during the war. This silence is an important form of contentious action by the women in Kosovo. While this silence could be approached by scholars ‘through almost exclusively culturalist discussions of shame and honor’ (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 633), it was a reaction to inaction. As Di Lellio argues, ‘[a] better explanation of [the silence of women] can be found in a fundamental lack of trust even in a mechanism of transitional justice that appears to avoid the traumas of courtroom justice or a feminist approach to justice’ (ibid. p. 634). Luci also builds on this idea of women's post-war silence as a ‘strategy of resistance’ and not as a ‘symbol of passivity and powerlessness’ (Luci, 2002, p.77). Indeed, emergent women's organizations in Kosovo became the institutional support that victims needed (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 633). The methods of these women's organizations are reminiscent of activism in the Ilegalja, meaning the support was offered in the local communities, often involving discretion, the maintenance of secrets, and solidarity between activists and local communities. Indeed, many of the women that had been active in the Ilegalja movement found a new channel of activism through local organizations. Thus, the immediate post-war context of contention by women was marked by yet another wave of local mobilization and (active) silence. While women's activism in this period was effective in providing support for women, at the central level progress was slow and they ‘mostly remain[ed] sidelined’ (Krasniqi, 2010, p. 20). The contentious methods chosen by activists were effective in achieving certain important goals, such as offering support to victims of rape. However, they restricted the scope of gender within the private realm or limited to the institutional agendas of the state or of non-governmental organizations and donors whose focus remained on narratives of women empowerment and gender mainstreaming. A considerable shift happened however in post-independence Kosovo, where the ‘old’ merged with the ‘new’. The silence of victims of sexual violence broke when Kosovo institutions started taking their plight seriously. The President of Kosovo at the time, Atifete Jahjaga, and the Minister of European Integration took steps which many women had been waiting and fighting for a long time to see (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 635). The formation of The National Council for the Survivors of Sexual Violence during the War under the auspices of the President of Kosovo Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga (Di Lellio, 2016), though not groundbreaking, constituted a gesture of so far unprecedented seriousness and care on the part of Kosovo leaders or institutions. The establishment of the Council enabled the support for an act of contention that symbolized the shift in methods of contention, the artistic installation ‘Thinking of you’ by the artist Alketa Xhafa Mripa. This installation, conceptualized and developed together with Anna Di Lellio, involved a collection of five thousand dresses which were later put on clotheslines across the Prishtina football stadium (ibid.). The artist gathered the five thousand dresses through a sensibilisation campaign which encouraged women throughout Kosovo to donate their dresses as a tribute to survivors of wartime sexual violence (Tran, 2015). This act introduced into the public space a topic that had been reserved for the private space. Indeed, for ‘the large majority of Kosovo citizens, it was the first time since the war that they talked publicly about this issue’ (Di Lellio, 2016, p.16). The art installation initiated on Kosovo's Liberation Day with the artist declaring that she hoped that this would also signify a liberation for women from guilt and from shame (Mari, 2015). The football field, too, places the phenomenon in a ‘macho territory’ (Mari, 2015), juxtaposing the male-dominated Albanian society and the vast, protection-less space, in which survivors had to operate (Mari, 2015). Lastly, this art installation ‘[aired the] dirty
Women vs. state-building? Public space is an important concept in discussions on the feminist narrative in Kosovo. Kosovo has a history of feminist mobilization that began when the country was still a part of Yugoslavia. The Ilegalja movement, an underground effort by ethnic Albanians to gain autonomy or independence (depending on the wave of the movement–see E. Krasniqi, 2011; V. Krasniqi, 2011b; Schwandner-Sievers, 2013), constituted the key aspect which mobilized many women in Kosovo. Many women were involved in the Ilegalja movement, worked for its overall goal, but also tried to introduce a favorable agenda for women and for addressing their issues (Gusia et al., 2016). However, the feminist activists' agenda during this time was often subverted due to the larger mission of national autonomy or independence, respectively. Still many women activists persisted in their activism, often standing in opposition to the organizational structures of the national movement (Di Lellio, 2016, pp. 622, 627; Gusia et al., 2016, p. 40). During the war the women activists of the Ilegalja were instrumental in reporting cases of rape and seeking to gather international support by highlighting cases of abuse by the FRY Army forces. The activism in the realm of the Ilegalja movement is important because it constituted the norm (Schwandner-Sievers, 2013) and the ideal of activism for many years in Kosovo. As is evident by the discussion in the Feminist Conversations (Gusia et al., 2016), the activists that participated in the movement then, are still active now and have inspired new generations of feminists and activists in Kosovo. The methods of contention that members of Ilegalja utilized provided opportunities but also limitations to the movement. While the parallel structures that the movement instituted enabled mobilization and support for the citizens of Kosovo in an increasingly oppressive regime, its covert tactics meant that silence, secrecy and often obedience for the sake of the nation, were de rigeur. Post-war, the Ilegalja became the basis of legitimacy for the new governing structures. However, the post-war context was detrimental to women, as they lost the crucial role they had before the war. As noted by Di Lellio (2016, pp. 631, 632) and Lindsay Abdela (2003, p. 212), the international actors in post-war Kosovo inhibited the inclusion of women by adopting and updating the Ilegalja mantra of ‘we have a state to build’. It was thus evident that addressing the inclusion of women and their issues in the post-war context did not constitute an important narrative of institution-building. This pattern fits into the larger post-Yugoslav context; as Zaharijević notes, the transition period brought a ‘quasi-retraditionalization [and] re-patriarchalization [with it] which in effect combines nationalist downgrading of women to mere bodies obligated to reproduce the nation, and shrinking of the social citizenship of 4
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laundry in public’ (Mari, 2015) and initiated a public debate on ‘private issues’. By opening up this space, the installation marked the inception of a new phase of contention that not only put ‘private issues’ into the public space, but removed these issues from the scope of the private altogether. It also marked a powerful act of citizenship, as it invented a space and challenged the status quo openly.
the group have their middle fingers raised, in defiance of the practice. This performance was in reaction to statements made by Prime Minister Haradinaj invoking the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, a code of customary law written in the 15th century, which, among others, enforces gender inequalities. Haveit have been adamant in their criticism of the Kanun, considering it as one of the main reasons for continuing gender disparities in Kosovo. Indeed, as part of the project #smashthepatriarchy by the artist Nita Zeqiri, one member of the group declares: ‘The customs (laws) of the Kanun as we know it are quite patriarchal and sexist and women's rights are violated since then, rights as that to inherit property, rights in marriage, the right to live’4 (Haveit, 2018b). Haveit also posted a video performance for the 8th of March in 2015 entitled ‘Tager’ (KultPlus, 2018), where they cooked the Kanun as a code which is oppressive to women and which hence should be cooked and thrown away. They also referenced this video later on as a criticism of the Prime Minister and his practices of normalizing the Kanun and its practice in contemporary Kosovo. Haveit have not been the only activists who have contested the patriarchal system in Kosovo and made claims to social justice for women. Indeed, there have been several individual as well as organized performances and campaigns that have addressed the discrimination that women face in their daily lives. Since 2012, the Kosovo Women's Network has organized protests on March 8th bringing together younger and older generations of feminists and protesters with the banner ‘MARShojm, S'festojm’ [We March, we don't celebrate]. In the march of 2017 a drama student, Adelina Tërshtani, performed a slam poem where she criticized the hiring practices by companies in Kosovo and the professional environment in which women had to operate. In the poem ‘Logjikë patriarkati’ [Patriarchal Logic] she says, ‘does it matter how I look or what I can do?’5 (Tërshtani, 2017) as a criticism to the practice whereby employers require photos of prospective employees, trying to choose young and appealing female candidates. In it, she also criticizes the prejudice that women face in the workplace, namely that they advance their careers by sexual favors. The anger in the tone of this performance is evident, as women are subjected to scrutiny, abuse, and harassment in the workplace. While there are institutions for the prevention of derogatory and abusive forms of behavior, women rarely use this recourse as it could end up costing them more than their employers. Tërshtani also attacks the concept of the unpaid work that women do at home, criticizing the fact that men say ‘My wife is a housewife, she does nothing/Disregarding that when he goes home his meal is cooked, his bed has been made [/But he is not to blame, patriarchal logic/I speak without your permission, because I am human’ (Tërshtani, 2017).6 The recital of the poem is significant because it happens in public, over a loud microphone, thus constituting a public contentious action. It is also significant in the language that it uses, that the artist does not shy away from expressing female sensuality, freedom of choice and using crude language, thus going against the image of women as pristine (të pasterta, in local usage), innocent, and quiet. Both by the words of the poem and the way it is performed by the artist, it represents an angry departure from silent resistance. She pushes beyond the acceptable framework of what a woman can and should say in public, and she challenges accepted practices by state and private institutions, which
Institutions and fury Isin argues that if we think of citizenship through acts, we ‘implicitly accept that to be a citizen is to make claims to justice: to break habitus and act in a way that disrupts already defined orders, practices and statuses’ (Isin, 2009, p. 384; original emphasis). The new forms of contention in Kosovo show an attempt to claim justice for women, and to break the status quo. Even before the war in Yugoslavia, Kosovar Albanian feminist activists sought to expand the space for women; however, the methods of seeking justice have changed, as the women are stepping into the public sphere, countering the weak institutional justice and the lack of inclusion of women in Kosovo. Kosovo judiciary relegates domestic violence to the private sphere, which has led to increased distrust by women in the courts and the police (Kelmendi, 2015). It is within this context that women become victims of abuse by their spouses and of violence by the state in not protecting them. Participants in the research done by Kelmendi ‘stated that most of the time the system['s] failure to achieve its goal; sometimes [reinforced] the violence. Most participants said that their experience with the police was humiliating from the start’ (ibid. p. 694). The cases of Diana Kastrati and Zejnepe Bytyqi cited at the beginning of this article, sparked outrage in Kosovo. They both involved domestic violence and the failure of the state to respond, as both women had previously complained of the behavior of their partners and their requests were not taken seriously. These two cases became representative of a larger culture of disregarding women's rights and place in society. The continual disregard by Kosovo institutions, and the continued mistreatment of women led many activists to seek new ways to express their voice and their anger. The art collective Haveit formed in 2011. Even before the ‘three billboards outside Prishtina’ they organized many installations in response to contemporary events, showcasing the figure of the activist citizen by continually challenging conventions. Their first street installation, called ‘Coronation,’ (Photo 2) followed the Diana Kastrati case in 2011 (Gjocaj, 2017; Haveit, 2018a). The members of the art collective stood with a white veil covered in blood on their faces. In the background, they played typical Albanian wedding songs in contrast to the still, scared and bloodied bride. The performance highlighted the fact that women stand alone, visibly battered and abused, yet maintain tradition (the wearing of the white veil, and the downward gaze brides are expected to keep). Haveit have been active in criticizing Kosovo's patriarchal society and the justice and legislative systems. Their art performances are public, often taking place in Prishtina's main square or in front of governmental institutions. The performances of Haveit mark a departure from past acts of contention in post-war Kosovo. Their activism is loud on purpose, penetrating through the silence, the private, and the comfortable spaces. As the activists themselves have noted in an interview, ‘We would like to keep fighting. Our biggest challenge is that we are afraid that we will become silent like our country. We want to keep being loud!’ (Fayle, 2016). They have sought to criticize the patriarchal leanings of society in depth, touching upon systemic issues. While the action with the three billboards and the ‘Coronation’ point to the institutional failures of the state to protect its citizens, other actions seek to address more subtle challenges to overcoming gender inequality or the under-representation of marginalized groups. In another performance, the group are sitting cross-legged and on the floor in a traditional room, odë, as was the custom in older homes, where men would sit and talk, while women were not allowed to participate (Insajderi, 2018). All four members of
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Original quotation in English. Translations by the author. 6 The poem seeks to highlight the disregard for the work that women do inside the house, and the disrespect that women face in their domestic life. The artist refers to the patriarchal logic as a reason why men think that house work, and the work that their wives do on a daily basis are insignificant. The last line ‘I speak without your permission, because I am human’ is significant as the artist tries to break her silence and does not seek permission, as would be expected of a woman within the ‘patriarchal logic’ she criticizes, but instead speaks as a human, who should have the right and space to speak. 5
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Photo 2. Haveit activist standing in a bloodied white veil in front of the Assembly of Kosovo. The performanceis called "The Coronation." Photo by Amy DiGiacomo. Permission to show the photo obtained by Haveit.
public performances or protests. What is important in this form of activism is that the artists involved in it do not aim at aestheticizing of the public space. On the contrary, many of these performances are subversive and at times gruesome; thus in direct opposition to the image of Kosovo as the youngest country in Europe, which tries to give an optimistic outlook. As Boris Groys argues when discussing activism, when contemporary art is used in criticizing a system, it does so by making ‘things not better but worse—and not relatively worse but radically worse: to make dysfunctional things out of functional things, to betray expectations’ (Groys, 2014, p. 14). Feminist art activism in Kosovo defies expectations in many ways, primarily by tearing down the wall of the private and, very importantly, in tearing down the expectations of what a woman can and cannot say and how she can express herself. Art activism has become a complementary method of the activist citizen in Kosovo, as it can be used to show what is wrong in society, and to push for spaces which might not be present in the public sphere, as Haveit have done through their public installations. They have created temporary and invented spaces, in which contention and critique of an unjust system are brought to the public space and challenged. Their presence in the public also invites others in and opens room for criticism and reflection. By being active in the public space, these acts of contention open new conceptual spaces that are important in building repertoires of contention. They have been crucial in introducing new narratives, concepts and actors into the Kosovo public space through the inventive use of art in the form of performances and poetry. The new spaces are transient, because they do not physically remain; nevertheless, they have opened new perspectives onto being an activist citizen in Kosovo. There are also many other recent efforts in Kosovo that show that these forms of contention, namely art, social media, loud and visible actions, are becoming established modes of contention. The festival FemArt (2018) is a way of institutionalizing this form of contention and giving it space to grow. The Festival, which completed its sixth edition
makes it an act of citizenship. Such contentious methods have continued to be used, including the campaign called ‘Qe një storie’ [Here's a Story] launched by Kosovo 2.0 in 2017, in the style of the poem by Tershtani (the video also stars her)(Kosovo 2.0, 2017). The campaign published a few videos online with an added hashtag of #qenjëstorie in 2017 and #ngom [listen to me] in 2018 and sought to share stories that highlighted prejudice and discrimination against women. In the videos several activist women tackle gender prejudice openly, by criticizing common conceptions of what a woman should and should not do, urging the audience to listen to them. The video stories engage with the way in which certain topics, such as the rape that women suffered during the war, or the role of women in rearing children, is often used to hinder the emancipation of women by making other things irrelevant. In one of the videos, ‘Here's another story… Listen to me!’ (Kosovo 2.0, 2018), the activists discuss the way that the female body, and her ‘honor’ has been used to limit her freedom and keep her quiet and invisible. Indeed, the video focuses on the tradition which measures the ‘honor of the house’ by the ‘honor of the woman’ as being a limiting practice which inhibits women from enjoying their freedom, because it becomes so tightly interwoven with honor and the home (and the country as well). As Yuval Davis noted ‘[w]omen often are constructed as symbols of the collectivity, its biological and cultural reproducers’ (Yuval-Davis, 1999, p. 130) and as such their behavior is regulated by “fundamentalist regulations concerning women's ‘modesty’” (ibid.). This discourse in Kosovo dates back to the Kanun and is deeply embedded in patriarchal legitimation of the suppression of women. The video ends by indicating that these feminists have not declared war on men, or the state, but rather, to the patriarchy, which is a recurring topic in Kosovo's contemporary feminist contentious politics (Kosovo 2.0, 2018). Contention through art has been the main trend in Kosovo, combined with the social media, and constitutes an important repertoire of acts of citizenship. In Kosovo, social media activism is joined with 6
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in 2018, seeks to be ‘used as a platform for starting and presenting ideas and creations that bring forward feminist concepts and their development in Kosovo’ (ibid.). It brings together feminist activists and artists from across the region, not only highlighting gender but also addressing other inequalities faced by marginalized groups, be they ethnic, religious or sexual. The Festival includes feminist movie nights, workshops that have the potential of teaching and perpetuating forms of contention and provides space for discussions that seek to penetrate the private and the public. The Festival also brings together different generations of activists to create a common space of reflection. The existence of such a Festival in Kosovo invigorates feminist ideas and modes of action within the domestic context. It is this combination of actors and methods, which though separate, work in solidarity with one another, providing an open space for feminists to navigate in Kosovo. In the last Festival, a group of feminists announced the opening of a virtual ‘Woman Activist Museum’ (Museum, 2018) including stories and photographs of feminists from Kosovo and the region. Women activists are clearly no longer hiding, and no longer using silence as the main form of contention.
FemArt (2018). FemArt. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from http://www.femart-ks.com/ en/. Friedman, M. (2005). Introduction. In M. Friedman (Ed.). Women and citizenship (pp. 3– 14). New York. USA: Oxford University Press. Gjocaj, S. (2017). Vicious cycle: Kosovo's battered women syndrome. Change. https:// balkaninsight.com/2017/11/08/vicious-cycle-kosovo-s-battered-women-syndrome11-03-2017-2/. Groys, B. (2014). On art activism. E-Flux Journal, 56, 1–14. Gusia, L., Krasniqi, V., & Luci, N. (2016). Feminists conversations: History, memory and difference. Prishtina: Forum ZFD. Haveit (2018a). Haveit Facebook Page. Retrieved May 30, 2019 https://www.facebook. com/haveit/. Haveit (2018b). Haveit Facebook Page. Retrieved May 30, 2019 https://www.facebook. com/haveit/posts/901662153327219. Insajderi (2018). “Gishti i mesit nga oda”- për qeverisjen kanunore të Haradinajt. Retrieved June, 2018, from https://insajderi.com/gishti-mesit-nga-oda-perqeverisjen-kanunore-te-haradinajt/. Isin, E. F. (2009). Citizenship in flux: The figure of the activist citizen. Subjectivity, 29, 367–388. Isin, E. F., & Nielsen, G. M. (2008). Introduction: Acts of citizenship. In E. F. Isin, & G. M. Nielsen (Eds.). Acts of citizenship (pp. 1–12). London. UK: Zed Books. Kelmendi, K. (2015). Domestic violence against women in Kosovo: A qualitative study of women's experiences. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(4), 680–702. Kennedy-Pipe, C., & Stanley, P. (2000). Rape in war: Lessons of the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s. The International Journal of Human Rights, 4(3–4), 67–84. Kosovo 2.0, K (2017). Qe një storie. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from https://www.facebook. com/watch/?v=1464800240198455. Kosovo 2.0, K (2018). Qe një storie tjetër... Ngom!. Retrieved October 2, 2018, from https://www.facebook.com/Kosovo2.0/videos/1862876783724130/?hc_ref= ARSjcVXXSsygqwzG5cOM8laFcypCL6qJWZQxU0hU0ZqXaGDKE6QtHyQm SIDKbWKyJ98. Krasniqi, E. (2011). Ilegalja: Women in the Albanian underground resistance movement in Kosovo. Profemina99–114 (Summer/Autumn). Krasniqi, G. (2010). Citizenship as a tool of state-building in Kosovo: Status, rights, and identity in the new state. (Working Paper No. 10. Edinburgh). Krasniqi, V. (2011b). Feminism and nationalism. ProFemina53–58 (Summer/Autumn). KultPlus (2018). HAVEIT – recetë për kryeministrin Haradinaj. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.kultplus.com/arti-pamor/haveit-recete-per-kryeministrinharadinaj/. Luci, N. (2002). Endangering masculinity in Kosovo: Can Albanian women say no? Anthropology of East Europe Review, 20(2), 71–79. Mari, C. (2015, June 11). Thinking of you: A collective healing among skirts. Kosovo 2.0. Retrieved from http://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/thinking-of-you-a-collectivehealing-among-skirts/. Miraftab, F. (2004). Invited and invented spaces of participation: Neoliberal citizenship and feminists' expanded notion of politics. Wagadu, 1, 1–7. Miškovska Kajevska, A. (2017). Feminist activism at war: Belgrade and Zagreb feminists in the 1990s. New York: Routledge. Museum, W. A (2018). Women activists museum. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from http:// www.womenactivistsmuseum.com. Revi, B. (2014). T.H. Marshall and his critics: Reappraising ‘social citizenship’ in the twenty-first century. Citizenship Studies, 18(3–4), 452464. Schwandner-Sievers, S. (2013). The bequest of Ilegalja: Contested memories and moralities in contemporary Kosovo. Nationalities Papers, 41(6), 953–970. Sparks, H. (1997). Dissident citizenship: Democratic theory, political courage, and activist women. Hypatia, 12(4), 74–110. Staeheli, L. A., Attoh, K., & Mitchell, D. (2013). Contested engagements: Youth and the politics of citizenship. Space and Polity. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2013. 780715. Štiks, I. (2006). Nationality and citizenship in the former Yugoslavia: From disintegration to European integration. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 6(4), 483–500. Tarrow, S. G. (2011). Power in movement: Social movements and contentious politics (Third Edit). New York. USA: Cambridge University Press. Tërshtani, A. (2017). MARShojm, S'festojm. Retrieved September 10, 2018, from https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfwX4_0GaBI. Tran, M. (2015, June 11). Dresses on washing lines pay tribute to Kosovo survivors of sexual violence. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://gu.com/p/49f2y/sbl. Volpp, L. (2017). Feminist, sexual, and queer citizenship. In A. Sachar, R. Bauböck, I. Bloemraad, & M. Vink (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of citizenship (pp. 153–177). NY, USA: OUP. Young, I. M. (1989). Polity and group difference: A critique of the ideal of universal citizenship. Ethics, 99(2), 250–274. Yuval-Davis, N. (1999). The ‘multi-layered citizen. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 1(1), 119–136. Zaharijević, A. (2013). Being an activist: Feminist citizenship through transformations of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav citizenship regimes (no. 28). (Edinburgh). Zaharijević, A. (2015). Dissidents, disloyal citizens and partisans of emancipation: Feminist citizenship in Yugoslavia and post- Yugoslav spaces. Women's Studies International Forum, 49, 93–100.
Conclusion Contemporary feminism in Kosovo is loud, visible, and artistic. Arising from a post-war context where silence became the mode of contention for many women, the new methods of resistance and protests have started openly contesting long-established gender prejudice and discrimination. The new modes of contention, involving art performances, protests, public campaigns and festivals, have established a new manner for feminists to make themselves present and heard in the Kosovo context. By shifting gender from the private sphere to the public sphere where disparities become addressed and criticized and where the status quo is continually challenged, these modes of resistance present a claim to citizenship by women as activist citizens. The art performances constitute an important development, as they address both the institutional as well as societal causes of gender inequality, thus seeking to engage with the root of the problem of disparity. Notably, all the different forms of contention are focused on smashing the patriarchy and the patriarchal system that reinforces gender stereotypes of women. The performances stand in contrast to the image of what a woman should and should not do in a society, thus further lifting the patriarchal shroud by showing anger, by challenging, by talkingback, by being women outside of the traditional view of femininity as passivity. Contemporary feminists thus perform their anger in the Kosovar public space. They ‘air their dirty laundry’ in open spaces, thus bringing the private into the public, making the female body and gender a new space for the development of citizenship in the Kosovo context. References Abdela, L. (2003). Kosovo: Missed opportunities, lessons for the future. Development in Practice, 13(2–3), 208–216. Bilic, B. (2012). We were gasping for air: [post-]Yugoslav anti-war activism and its legacy. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Bonfiglioli, C., Kahlina, K., & Zaharijević, A. (2015). Transformations of gender, sexuality and citizenship in south East Europe. Women's Studies International Forum, 49, 43–47. Deiana, M. A. (2013). Citizenship as (not)belonging? Contesting the replication of gendered and ethnicised exclusions in post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina. In S. Roseneil (Ed.). Beyond citizenship?: Feminism and the transformation of belonging (pp. 184–210). Palgrave Macmillan. Di Lellio, A. (2016). Seeking justice for wartime sexual violence in Kosovo: Voices and silence of women. East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 30(3), 621–643. Fayle, J. (2016, June 16). The Kosovo sisters kissing in public to fight conservatism. Dazed https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/31554/1/art-collectivekosovo-lgbt-artists-have-it-han-vesa-qena.
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Performing anger in Kosovo: Women's claim to citizenship Lura Pollozhani1 Razlovecko Vostanie 26/V/16, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Feminism Activist citizenship Kosovo Post-war Artistic activism Methods and spaces of contention
This article analyzes post-war feminist contention in Kosovo. The analysis distinguishes between two stages of feminist contention: post-war and post-independence by drawing comparisons in the methods feminist activists have used. The main emerging difference is the use of silence as a form of contention in the post-war context, and the public and predominantly artistic forms of contention of post-independence activism. I claim that by making their contention in the public sphere and actively challenging the status quo, contemporary feminists in Kosovo have sought to claim citizenship. While post-war activism was contentious it still maintained gender in the private realm whereas contemporary activism brings gender into the public sphere through acts of citizenship such as slam poems, marches, and art installations. These new methods of contention have made it possible to invent new spaces of contention and new ways of being for feminists in Kosovo which are crucial to claims of citizenship.
On 8 March 2018, three billboards with a red background and black letters appeared in the center of Prishtina.2 The billboards, posted by the art collective Haveit, noted the names of Diana Kastrati and Zejnepe Bytyqi, killed by their former spouse and current spouse, respectively. The third message ‘Edhe sa thirrje te humbura’ [How many more missed calls?], referred to the fact that both killed women had reported the abuse they had received from their partners to the police numerous times, and they had not received the necessary and required protection. (Photo 1) The billboards were placed in front of the police headquarters in Prishtina, as noted by the art collective in order to challenge their lack of response to, and protection of, the victims (Haveit, 2018a). This action represents an act of contentious politics, which intertwines the different actors, issues, and shifts that are important when analyzing the development of contemporary methods of feminist activists and feminism in Kosovo. The development of contemporary feminism in Kosovo is deeply intertwined with the past yet also breaks from it in considerable ways. It is informed by the past because it is a response to both the issues that women in Kosovo have faced in the last three decades and the methods that feminist activists have used to address them. During the 1990s, as the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was disintegrating, Kosovo citizens lost the autonomy granted to them by the 1974 constitution, which had ensured them a ‘quasi-citizenship regime’ (Krasniqi, 2010, p. 5). As of 1992, they were subject to the federal
citizenship regime of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (ibid.), which subsumed Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia. During this period, the new citizenship regime ‘de facto downgraded the position of Albanians […] and stripped them of their basic political and legal entitlements’ (ibid, 9). At first, Kosovar Albanians responded by boycotting elections and with self-exclusion (ibid.). Eventually, the repressive practices and the heightened tension between Kosovo's political elite and the Yugoslav regime led to the armed conflict of 1998 that lasted until June 1999. Štiks (2006) makes the argument that citizenship regimes in the different periods and arrangements of Yugoslavia need to be considered as an important factor that led to its dissolution. Indeed, the changing citizenship regimes and how they affected Kosovar citizens was crucial to mobilization before the war. During the 1990s the Democratic League of Kosovo's (LDK) mobilization set up its own referendum on Kosovo independence that established parallel institutions, including education and health (Krasniqi, 2010, p. 9). The Kosovo resistance constantly sought to expand their rights and ultimately to gain independence from the FRY. Within this mobilization of the Kosovar elite and citizens, feminist activism often fell in the shadow of the Illegalja [The Illegal] movement (Ahmeti in Gusia, Krasniqi, & Luci, 2016, p. 40) even though they were instrumental in mobilizing and organizing communities against the regime. During the ensuing war of 1998–9, an estimated 20,000 women were victims of rape and abuse by the forces of the Federal Yugoslav
E-mail address: [email protected]. PhD Candidate in Law and Politics at the University of Graz, working on citizenship and social movements in divided societies. 2 The three billboards are in reference to the movie ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’, written and directed by Martin McDonagh, released in 2017. The movie is about a woman that places three red billboards outside her town in order to raise attention regarding the unsolved rape and murder of her daughter. 1
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102243 Received 29 October 2018; Received in revised form 25 June 2019; Accepted 27 June 2019 0277-5395/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Lura Pollozhani, Women's Studies International Forum, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102243
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Photo 1. Haveit activists standing in front of the three billboards in the center of Prishtina. Photo by Nol Shala. Permission to show the photo obtained by Haveit.
Republic (Mari, 2015). Women activists were crucial in gathering data of reported rapes as well as providing support to victims. After the war, many feminists had hoped that their position within the political and public elites would improve. However, women's issues as well as their positions were relegated to ‘the back seat’ (Abdela, 2003; Di Lellio, 2016) as compared to the ‘high-level’ issues of state formation. Hence, following the violence women had suffered during the war, post-war violence in Kosovo continued in two ways. One is the lack of acknowledgment of the suffering that women had experienced due to the use of rape as a strategy of the forces of the FRY during the war (Kennedy-Pipe & Stanley, 2000). This can be interpreted as violence as it pushed women into spaces of silence, disregarded their needs and their vulnerability. The second way in which violence is predominant in the post-war and post-independence period is in the domestic sphere. However, I consider this violence as public violence as it is not adequately addressed by state institutions. State institutions play an important part in both experiences of violence. In the first case, institutions perpetrate violence or permit its existence. In turn, it is the lack of the institutional support and trust which defines the methods and spaces of contention in Kosovo. International actors played a key role in this period as they failed to recognize early on the importance of the inclusion of women and the resolution of their issues in the aftermath of the war (Abdela, 2003; Deiana, 2013). The issue of war-time rape and of domestic violence constitute the two issues against which younger and older feminists contend. Feminists in Kosovo have actively tried and oftentimes succeeded in including women and gender issues in government agendas and advocating for them. However, there is a considerable difference in the modes of contention applied by contemporary feminism in Kosovo, which I will try to analyze in this article. I argue that contemporary feminists in Kosovo have moved towards a shift from the private to the public sphere, thus actively claiming their citizenship in a country still in construction. In this article I will establish the contemporary methods of contention in Kosovo within a debate on citizenship. The dichotomy of a
private and public sphere has been widely examined by scholars in citizenship studies (Friedman, 2005; Volpp, 2017; Young, 1989). It is based on the premise that by relegating gender and women's experiences to the private sphere, citizenship regimes become harmful to women because the rights that they bear, are based on male characteristics (Volpp, 2017, p. 156). This makes contention by feminist activists particularly important as they seek to expand these limitations on citizenship. To show how this has been done in Kosovo, I will firstly outline methods of contentious politics in the post-war period by marking two different stages, the silent and the loud. Next, I will explore scholarly literature, and like other scholars (Di Lellio, 2016; Luci, 2002), I too treat the silence that women in Kosovo adopted after the war as contentious, not passive. Finally, I argue that although these actions were not passive they kept women in the realm of the private sphere, whereas the methods of contention adopted by contemporary feminist activists, mainly through art activism, have sought to claim citizenship in the public sphere. The new wave of contention in Kosovo is informed by, and built on, former actions by feminists in important ways; however, the new forms of contention can also be seen as a reaction to previous contentious practices. In certain ways, new methods of contention seem to develop in direct opposition to previous methods, showing a degree of ‘tiredness’ with methods which do not necessarily work for the new generation of feminists or the contemporary Kosovar context. This does not denote conflict between the activists, but rather, outlines different mobilization techniques due to differing circumstances and methods of contention. The article is based on an analysis of the methods used by contemporary feminists including analysis of the performances of the art collective Haveit; slam poetry, the 8th of March protests and campaigns (which involve a larger group of women and combine older and newer actors of contentious politics); and art installations addressing current issues of Kosovar women. I focus on the post-war period of contention because it provides an opportunity to investigate the shift between the different modes of contention. I explore pre-war instances
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of contention because they are important in building the foundation of feminism in Kosovo; however, I do not analyze them in detail. The comparative aspect of this paper focuses on the post-war period (1998–2008),3 when silence was utilized as a form of contention, and the post-independence (post-2008) period when contention became individual, public and loud. The methods which are analyzed in this article were chosen to illustrate different forms of contention that have been predominantly used in the last decade and challenge a patriarchal regime through activist citizenship. With this article, I aim to contribute to literature on feminism in the post-Yugoslav sphere by studying contemporary forms of feminism in Kosovo, which is currently lacking. While important research on the Ilegalja movement (Krasniqi, 2011; Schwandner-Sievers, 2013) and feminist activism (Gusia et al., 2016) has contributed to creating a narrative of feminism in Kosovo, there is a need to include contemporary forms of contention. This fits into the broader trend as.
Staeheli et al., ‘citizenship is continuously contested—and created—through acts of engagement’ (Staeheli, Attoh, & Mitchell, 2013, p. 104). Such acts, when they seek to break with the current order and the status quo, constitute acts of citizenship as defined by Isin and Nielsen (2008). Acts of citizenship do not have to constitute a movement, however they do need to be contentious. Sydney Tarrow notes that ‘the core of contention is the power to disrupt through the invention of innovative ways of performing protest’ (Tarrow, 2011, p. 101). Acts of citizenship are often innovative and operate within invented spaces as they have to create spaces and practices outside of the ordinary. In addition, acts of citizenship represent an engagement with the state, a claim of citizenship; whether from outsiders or insiders (as Isin notes, non-citizens can also perform acts of citizenship (Isin, 2009)) by challenging the practices of the state which are exclusionary or discriminatory. This conceptualization of citizenship as an innovative engagement with the state offers an important lens when considering contemporary feminist contentious actions in Kosovo. As the analysis will reflect, this claim to citizenship in Kosovo has been mainly achieved by acts which have sought to expand what it means to be a citizen through art activism. Adriana Zaharijević takes a similar approach when arguing that feminist activism in the former Yugoslav states should be seen under the lens of activist citizenship (Zaharijević, 2015, p. 94). Zaharijević observes three separate contexts for this feminist (activist) citizenship: 1. the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; 2. the war period of the 1990s; 3. the post-war period. She notes that feminist (activist) citizenship first appears ‘in the context of dissidence: second, in relation to belonging and borders; and contemporary feminist activist citizenship, which questions and undermines the existing citizenship order, practices and statuses, relies on political re-appropriation and re-politicization of the Yugoslav social heritage’ (ibid. p. 98). While the analysis presented by Zaharijević builds on several examinations of the former Yugoslav countries, it does not necessarily include Kosovo in the analysis. Several features noted by Zaharijević, including the dissident feminist aspect (Sparks, 1997; Zaharijević, 2015, p. 94), as well as the trans nationalism of the feminists in the Yugoslav period, which survived through the wars (Bilic, 2012; Bonfiglioli et al., 2015; Gusia et al., 2016; Miškovska Kajevska, 2017), complement well with the Kosovo case. However, there are ways in which Kosovo feminism does not fit into this framework, the most important being the embeddedness of the feminist activists in the movement for the independence of Kosovo. This aspect shows that they do not correspond to the position of ‘women have no country’ which Zaharijević highlights. The Kosovo feminist activists sought to break free of the repression of Yugoslav Federation as women and as ethnic Albanians. However, this does not reduce the trans-national aspect of Kosovo feminists and the cooperation they had with feminists of the Yugoslav space. Still, Zaharijević's claim that we should analyze feminist activism within the framework of activist citizenship (Zaharijević, 2015, p. 94) is worth pursuing. She argues that feminist activism constitutes activist citizenship insofar as it has opposed the status quo throughout changing citizenship regimes in Yugoslavia and the successor states after its dissolution (Zaharijević, 2013). When considering the case of Kosovo, the framework of activist citizenship is also the lens through which to analyze feminist contention. Namely, post-independence feminist contention in Kosovo has pushed beyond the established borders of what society is comfortable discussing in the public sphere. They have invented new spaces of contention, which is a new phenomenon in Kosovo even compared to the pre-war period (as the women activists struggled to create spaces outside of the movement for liberation). Zaharijević draws on Faranak Miraftab's dinstinction between ‘invited’ and ‘invented’ spaces (Miraftab, 2004; Zaharijević, 2013), whereby the latter constitute direct opposition ‘to authorities and the status quo’ (Miraftab, 2004, p. 1). Contemporary feminism in Kosovo resides predominantly in constructed spaces, as women activists in the post-war context shift in between the invented and the invited, mostly operating
[F]eminist studies of the region have also been largely concerned with the issues of war and nationalism. This is to a great extent due to the fact that anti-war and anti-nationalist activism has been a prominent factor of mobilization among local feminists and LGBT activists, becoming at a certain point even its distinctive feature. (Bonfiglioli, Kahlina, & Zaharijević, 2015, p. 44). By drawing upon this scholarly literature, this paper seeks to engage with literature dealing with other countries of former Yugoslavia with the aim of creating space for future comparative research. Breaking through the borders of the private Citizenship regimes have always had a conflict with concepts of gender. As Ben Revi notes, ‘citizenship has been built on gender inequality’ (Revi, 2014, p. 459). This is an argument well established in the seminal work of Iris Marion Young, ‘Polity and group difference: A critique of the ideal of universal citizenship’, where she outlines how a universal approach to citizenship, favored by the founders of the modern state, was built upon masculine experience (Young, 1989, p. 253). Hence, the image of the citizen was that of the well-off, privileged male, and everyone else had to conform to this image. Young's critique builds upon the critique of the universality of citizenship rights and highlights how within this framework women have suffered marginalization and exclusion. As Leti Volpp notes, ‘[w]hat underlay these exclusions was an unquestioned public/private dichotomy, one that consigned women to the private or domestic sphere, reserving citizenship's sphere of the public domain for men’ (Volpp, 2017, p. 156). Nira Yuval-Davis, too, highlights the way the marginalization to the private in effect marginalized women as “[i]n constructing citizenship within the realm of the political community, the traditional discourse on citizenship has excluded the ‘private sphere’ from the realm of relevance [which is why] women have been excluded from the discourse of citizenship for so long” (Yuval-Davis, 1999, p. 122). Inasmuch as citizenship is differentiated based on gender (Friedman, 2005, p. 4), it is also marked by contention. While gender and contention do not mark the only differentiations of citizenship, they have formed two strong underlying currents of shifts in citizenship practice and regimes. Namely, the boundaries of citizenship—who belongs to a state and who does not—both in practice and de jure, have shifted as a result of contention and social movements. The Suffragette movement at the turn of the 20th century constitutes such a push by expanding the boundaries of citizenship through the right to vote for women. Similarly, recent movements, such as the #Metoo movement on sexual harassment and violence, challenge practices which limit the security of women in the public and private space. According to Lynn 3 The post-war period includes the war years of 1998–1999 as it provides the context for the immediate post-war period.
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in the space of the latter as they sought to move for change through civil society and NGOs. The immediate post-war context in Kosovo featured voracious debates on justice for war crimes, particularly the issue of victims of rape, as well as on the framing of gender rights within the new citizenship regime. Anna Di Lellio notes the failure of the international courts to protect the anonymity and sensitivity of rape victims, as well as the failure of local institutions to build support for them, which led ‘women [to] quietly [retreat] to their private suffering’ (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 633). Indeed, the institutional failure to address women's vital concerns is an important variable in the story of feminist contention in Kosovo. Research has shown that there is very little trust in state institutions meant to protect women. As Kaltrina Kelmendi notes, many of her respondents ‘felt unhappy with the legal representatives, social workers, police, and other stakeholders in the protection mechanism’ (Kelmendi, 2015, p. 694). Thus the institutional failure to address women's issues is not only a trend that characterizes post-war Kosovo, but also post-independence Kosovo. Against this backdrop, Kosovo feminists have mobilized contemporary feminist actions that seeks to publicly challenge the borders of citizenship and claim it in the public space.
women’ (Zaharijević, 2013, pp. 17–8; Zaharijević, 2013, p. 97). In the immediate post-war context in Kosovo, as Di Lellio (2016) and Nita Luci (2002) have noted, feminist activists sought to address the issues of rape victims during the war. Rape victims suffered violence numerous times, as their grueling experience did not receive the required support nor seriousness (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 632) from local and international institutions. As such, women remained silent about what they had suffered during the war. This silence is an important form of contentious action by the women in Kosovo. While this silence could be approached by scholars ‘through almost exclusively culturalist discussions of shame and honor’ (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 633), it was a reaction to inaction. As Di Lellio argues, ‘[a] better explanation of [the silence of women] can be found in a fundamental lack of trust even in a mechanism of transitional justice that appears to avoid the traumas of courtroom justice or a feminist approach to justice’ (ibid. p. 634). Luci also builds on this idea of women's post-war silence as a ‘strategy of resistance’ and not as a ‘symbol of passivity and powerlessness’ (Luci, 2002, p.77). Indeed, emergent women's organizations in Kosovo became the institutional support that victims needed (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 633). The methods of these women's organizations are reminiscent of activism in the Ilegalja, meaning the support was offered in the local communities, often involving discretion, the maintenance of secrets, and solidarity between activists and local communities. Indeed, many of the women that had been active in the Ilegalja movement found a new channel of activism through local organizations. Thus, the immediate post-war context of contention by women was marked by yet another wave of local mobilization and (active) silence. While women's activism in this period was effective in providing support for women, at the central level progress was slow and they ‘mostly remain[ed] sidelined’ (Krasniqi, 2010, p. 20). The contentious methods chosen by activists were effective in achieving certain important goals, such as offering support to victims of rape. However, they restricted the scope of gender within the private realm or limited to the institutional agendas of the state or of non-governmental organizations and donors whose focus remained on narratives of women empowerment and gender mainstreaming. A considerable shift happened however in post-independence Kosovo, where the ‘old’ merged with the ‘new’. The silence of victims of sexual violence broke when Kosovo institutions started taking their plight seriously. The President of Kosovo at the time, Atifete Jahjaga, and the Minister of European Integration took steps which many women had been waiting and fighting for a long time to see (Di Lellio, 2016, p. 635). The formation of The National Council for the Survivors of Sexual Violence during the War under the auspices of the President of Kosovo Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga (Di Lellio, 2016), though not groundbreaking, constituted a gesture of so far unprecedented seriousness and care on the part of Kosovo leaders or institutions. The establishment of the Council enabled the support for an act of contention that symbolized the shift in methods of contention, the artistic installation ‘Thinking of you’ by the artist Alketa Xhafa Mripa. This installation, conceptualized and developed together with Anna Di Lellio, involved a collection of five thousand dresses which were later put on clotheslines across the Prishtina football stadium (ibid.). The artist gathered the five thousand dresses through a sensibilisation campaign which encouraged women throughout Kosovo to donate their dresses as a tribute to survivors of wartime sexual violence (Tran, 2015). This act introduced into the public space a topic that had been reserved for the private space. Indeed, for ‘the large majority of Kosovo citizens, it was the first time since the war that they talked publicly about this issue’ (Di Lellio, 2016, p.16). The art installation initiated on Kosovo's Liberation Day with the artist declaring that she hoped that this would also signify a liberation for women from guilt and from shame (Mari, 2015). The football field, too, places the phenomenon in a ‘macho territory’ (Mari, 2015), juxtaposing the male-dominated Albanian society and the vast, protection-less space, in which survivors had to operate (Mari, 2015). Lastly, this art installation ‘[aired the] dirty
Women vs. state-building? Public space is an important concept in discussions on the feminist narrative in Kosovo. Kosovo has a history of feminist mobilization that began when the country was still a part of Yugoslavia. The Ilegalja movement, an underground effort by ethnic Albanians to gain autonomy or independence (depending on the wave of the movement–see E. Krasniqi, 2011; V. Krasniqi, 2011b; Schwandner-Sievers, 2013), constituted the key aspect which mobilized many women in Kosovo. Many women were involved in the Ilegalja movement, worked for its overall goal, but also tried to introduce a favorable agenda for women and for addressing their issues (Gusia et al., 2016). However, the feminist activists' agenda during this time was often subverted due to the larger mission of national autonomy or independence, respectively. Still many women activists persisted in their activism, often standing in opposition to the organizational structures of the national movement (Di Lellio, 2016, pp. 622, 627; Gusia et al., 2016, p. 40). During the war the women activists of the Ilegalja were instrumental in reporting cases of rape and seeking to gather international support by highlighting cases of abuse by the FRY Army forces. The activism in the realm of the Ilegalja movement is important because it constituted the norm (Schwandner-Sievers, 2013) and the ideal of activism for many years in Kosovo. As is evident by the discussion in the Feminist Conversations (Gusia et al., 2016), the activists that participated in the movement then, are still active now and have inspired new generations of feminists and activists in Kosovo. The methods of contention that members of Ilegalja utilized provided opportunities but also limitations to the movement. While the parallel structures that the movement instituted enabled mobilization and support for the citizens of Kosovo in an increasingly oppressive regime, its covert tactics meant that silence, secrecy and often obedience for the sake of the nation, were de rigeur. Post-war, the Ilegalja became the basis of legitimacy for the new governing structures. However, the post-war context was detrimental to women, as they lost the crucial role they had before the war. As noted by Di Lellio (2016, pp. 631, 632) and Lindsay Abdela (2003, p. 212), the international actors in post-war Kosovo inhibited the inclusion of women by adopting and updating the Ilegalja mantra of ‘we have a state to build’. It was thus evident that addressing the inclusion of women and their issues in the post-war context did not constitute an important narrative of institution-building. This pattern fits into the larger post-Yugoslav context; as Zaharijević notes, the transition period brought a ‘quasi-retraditionalization [and] re-patriarchalization [with it] which in effect combines nationalist downgrading of women to mere bodies obligated to reproduce the nation, and shrinking of the social citizenship of 4
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laundry in public’ (Mari, 2015) and initiated a public debate on ‘private issues’. By opening up this space, the installation marked the inception of a new phase of contention that not only put ‘private issues’ into the public space, but removed these issues from the scope of the private altogether. It also marked a powerful act of citizenship, as it invented a space and challenged the status quo openly.
the group have their middle fingers raised, in defiance of the practice. This performance was in reaction to statements made by Prime Minister Haradinaj invoking the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, a code of customary law written in the 15th century, which, among others, enforces gender inequalities. Haveit have been adamant in their criticism of the Kanun, considering it as one of the main reasons for continuing gender disparities in Kosovo. Indeed, as part of the project #smashthepatriarchy by the artist Nita Zeqiri, one member of the group declares: ‘The customs (laws) of the Kanun as we know it are quite patriarchal and sexist and women's rights are violated since then, rights as that to inherit property, rights in marriage, the right to live’4 (Haveit, 2018b). Haveit also posted a video performance for the 8th of March in 2015 entitled ‘Tager’ (KultPlus, 2018), where they cooked the Kanun as a code which is oppressive to women and which hence should be cooked and thrown away. They also referenced this video later on as a criticism of the Prime Minister and his practices of normalizing the Kanun and its practice in contemporary Kosovo. Haveit have not been the only activists who have contested the patriarchal system in Kosovo and made claims to social justice for women. Indeed, there have been several individual as well as organized performances and campaigns that have addressed the discrimination that women face in their daily lives. Since 2012, the Kosovo Women's Network has organized protests on March 8th bringing together younger and older generations of feminists and protesters with the banner ‘MARShojm, S'festojm’ [We March, we don't celebrate]. In the march of 2017 a drama student, Adelina Tërshtani, performed a slam poem where she criticized the hiring practices by companies in Kosovo and the professional environment in which women had to operate. In the poem ‘Logjikë patriarkati’ [Patriarchal Logic] she says, ‘does it matter how I look or what I can do?’5 (Tërshtani, 2017) as a criticism to the practice whereby employers require photos of prospective employees, trying to choose young and appealing female candidates. In it, she also criticizes the prejudice that women face in the workplace, namely that they advance their careers by sexual favors. The anger in the tone of this performance is evident, as women are subjected to scrutiny, abuse, and harassment in the workplace. While there are institutions for the prevention of derogatory and abusive forms of behavior, women rarely use this recourse as it could end up costing them more than their employers. Tërshtani also attacks the concept of the unpaid work that women do at home, criticizing the fact that men say ‘My wife is a housewife, she does nothing/Disregarding that when he goes home his meal is cooked, his bed has been made [/But he is not to blame, patriarchal logic/I speak without your permission, because I am human’ (Tërshtani, 2017).6 The recital of the poem is significant because it happens in public, over a loud microphone, thus constituting a public contentious action. It is also significant in the language that it uses, that the artist does not shy away from expressing female sensuality, freedom of choice and using crude language, thus going against the image of women as pristine (të pasterta, in local usage), innocent, and quiet. Both by the words of the poem and the way it is performed by the artist, it represents an angry departure from silent resistance. She pushes beyond the acceptable framework of what a woman can and should say in public, and she challenges accepted practices by state and private institutions, which
Institutions and fury Isin argues that if we think of citizenship through acts, we ‘implicitly accept that to be a citizen is to make claims to justice: to break habitus and act in a way that disrupts already defined orders, practices and statuses’ (Isin, 2009, p. 384; original emphasis). The new forms of contention in Kosovo show an attempt to claim justice for women, and to break the status quo. Even before the war in Yugoslavia, Kosovar Albanian feminist activists sought to expand the space for women; however, the methods of seeking justice have changed, as the women are stepping into the public sphere, countering the weak institutional justice and the lack of inclusion of women in Kosovo. Kosovo judiciary relegates domestic violence to the private sphere, which has led to increased distrust by women in the courts and the police (Kelmendi, 2015). It is within this context that women become victims of abuse by their spouses and of violence by the state in not protecting them. Participants in the research done by Kelmendi ‘stated that most of the time the system['s] failure to achieve its goal; sometimes [reinforced] the violence. Most participants said that their experience with the police was humiliating from the start’ (ibid. p. 694). The cases of Diana Kastrati and Zejnepe Bytyqi cited at the beginning of this article, sparked outrage in Kosovo. They both involved domestic violence and the failure of the state to respond, as both women had previously complained of the behavior of their partners and their requests were not taken seriously. These two cases became representative of a larger culture of disregarding women's rights and place in society. The continual disregard by Kosovo institutions, and the continued mistreatment of women led many activists to seek new ways to express their voice and their anger. The art collective Haveit formed in 2011. Even before the ‘three billboards outside Prishtina’ they organized many installations in response to contemporary events, showcasing the figure of the activist citizen by continually challenging conventions. Their first street installation, called ‘Coronation,’ (Photo 2) followed the Diana Kastrati case in 2011 (Gjocaj, 2017; Haveit, 2018a). The members of the art collective stood with a white veil covered in blood on their faces. In the background, they played typical Albanian wedding songs in contrast to the still, scared and bloodied bride. The performance highlighted the fact that women stand alone, visibly battered and abused, yet maintain tradition (the wearing of the white veil, and the downward gaze brides are expected to keep). Haveit have been active in criticizing Kosovo's patriarchal society and the justice and legislative systems. Their art performances are public, often taking place in Prishtina's main square or in front of governmental institutions. The performances of Haveit mark a departure from past acts of contention in post-war Kosovo. Their activism is loud on purpose, penetrating through the silence, the private, and the comfortable spaces. As the activists themselves have noted in an interview, ‘We would like to keep fighting. Our biggest challenge is that we are afraid that we will become silent like our country. We want to keep being loud!’ (Fayle, 2016). They have sought to criticize the patriarchal leanings of society in depth, touching upon systemic issues. While the action with the three billboards and the ‘Coronation’ point to the institutional failures of the state to protect its citizens, other actions seek to address more subtle challenges to overcoming gender inequality or the under-representation of marginalized groups. In another performance, the group are sitting cross-legged and on the floor in a traditional room, odë, as was the custom in older homes, where men would sit and talk, while women were not allowed to participate (Insajderi, 2018). All four members of
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Original quotation in English. Translations by the author. 6 The poem seeks to highlight the disregard for the work that women do inside the house, and the disrespect that women face in their domestic life. The artist refers to the patriarchal logic as a reason why men think that house work, and the work that their wives do on a daily basis are insignificant. The last line ‘I speak without your permission, because I am human’ is significant as the artist tries to break her silence and does not seek permission, as would be expected of a woman within the ‘patriarchal logic’ she criticizes, but instead speaks as a human, who should have the right and space to speak. 5
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Photo 2. Haveit activist standing in a bloodied white veil in front of the Assembly of Kosovo. The performanceis called "The Coronation." Photo by Amy DiGiacomo. Permission to show the photo obtained by Haveit.
public performances or protests. What is important in this form of activism is that the artists involved in it do not aim at aestheticizing of the public space. On the contrary, many of these performances are subversive and at times gruesome; thus in direct opposition to the image of Kosovo as the youngest country in Europe, which tries to give an optimistic outlook. As Boris Groys argues when discussing activism, when contemporary art is used in criticizing a system, it does so by making ‘things not better but worse—and not relatively worse but radically worse: to make dysfunctional things out of functional things, to betray expectations’ (Groys, 2014, p. 14). Feminist art activism in Kosovo defies expectations in many ways, primarily by tearing down the wall of the private and, very importantly, in tearing down the expectations of what a woman can and cannot say and how she can express herself. Art activism has become a complementary method of the activist citizen in Kosovo, as it can be used to show what is wrong in society, and to push for spaces which might not be present in the public sphere, as Haveit have done through their public installations. They have created temporary and invented spaces, in which contention and critique of an unjust system are brought to the public space and challenged. Their presence in the public also invites others in and opens room for criticism and reflection. By being active in the public space, these acts of contention open new conceptual spaces that are important in building repertoires of contention. They have been crucial in introducing new narratives, concepts and actors into the Kosovo public space through the inventive use of art in the form of performances and poetry. The new spaces are transient, because they do not physically remain; nevertheless, they have opened new perspectives onto being an activist citizen in Kosovo. There are also many other recent efforts in Kosovo that show that these forms of contention, namely art, social media, loud and visible actions, are becoming established modes of contention. The festival FemArt (2018) is a way of institutionalizing this form of contention and giving it space to grow. The Festival, which completed its sixth edition
makes it an act of citizenship. Such contentious methods have continued to be used, including the campaign called ‘Qe një storie’ [Here's a Story] launched by Kosovo 2.0 in 2017, in the style of the poem by Tershtani (the video also stars her)(Kosovo 2.0, 2017). The campaign published a few videos online with an added hashtag of #qenjëstorie in 2017 and #ngom [listen to me] in 2018 and sought to share stories that highlighted prejudice and discrimination against women. In the videos several activist women tackle gender prejudice openly, by criticizing common conceptions of what a woman should and should not do, urging the audience to listen to them. The video stories engage with the way in which certain topics, such as the rape that women suffered during the war, or the role of women in rearing children, is often used to hinder the emancipation of women by making other things irrelevant. In one of the videos, ‘Here's another story… Listen to me!’ (Kosovo 2.0, 2018), the activists discuss the way that the female body, and her ‘honor’ has been used to limit her freedom and keep her quiet and invisible. Indeed, the video focuses on the tradition which measures the ‘honor of the house’ by the ‘honor of the woman’ as being a limiting practice which inhibits women from enjoying their freedom, because it becomes so tightly interwoven with honor and the home (and the country as well). As Yuval Davis noted ‘[w]omen often are constructed as symbols of the collectivity, its biological and cultural reproducers’ (Yuval-Davis, 1999, p. 130) and as such their behavior is regulated by “fundamentalist regulations concerning women's ‘modesty’” (ibid.). This discourse in Kosovo dates back to the Kanun and is deeply embedded in patriarchal legitimation of the suppression of women. The video ends by indicating that these feminists have not declared war on men, or the state, but rather, to the patriarchy, which is a recurring topic in Kosovo's contemporary feminist contentious politics (Kosovo 2.0, 2018). Contention through art has been the main trend in Kosovo, combined with the social media, and constitutes an important repertoire of acts of citizenship. In Kosovo, social media activism is joined with 6
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in 2018, seeks to be ‘used as a platform for starting and presenting ideas and creations that bring forward feminist concepts and their development in Kosovo’ (ibid.). It brings together feminist activists and artists from across the region, not only highlighting gender but also addressing other inequalities faced by marginalized groups, be they ethnic, religious or sexual. The Festival includes feminist movie nights, workshops that have the potential of teaching and perpetuating forms of contention and provides space for discussions that seek to penetrate the private and the public. The Festival also brings together different generations of activists to create a common space of reflection. The existence of such a Festival in Kosovo invigorates feminist ideas and modes of action within the domestic context. It is this combination of actors and methods, which though separate, work in solidarity with one another, providing an open space for feminists to navigate in Kosovo. In the last Festival, a group of feminists announced the opening of a virtual ‘Woman Activist Museum’ (Museum, 2018) including stories and photographs of feminists from Kosovo and the region. Women activists are clearly no longer hiding, and no longer using silence as the main form of contention.
FemArt (2018). FemArt. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from http://www.femart-ks.com/ en/. Friedman, M. (2005). Introduction. In M. Friedman (Ed.). Women and citizenship (pp. 3– 14). New York. USA: Oxford University Press. Gjocaj, S. (2017). Vicious cycle: Kosovo's battered women syndrome. Change. https:// balkaninsight.com/2017/11/08/vicious-cycle-kosovo-s-battered-women-syndrome11-03-2017-2/. Groys, B. (2014). On art activism. E-Flux Journal, 56, 1–14. Gusia, L., Krasniqi, V., & Luci, N. (2016). Feminists conversations: History, memory and difference. Prishtina: Forum ZFD. Haveit (2018a). Haveit Facebook Page. Retrieved May 30, 2019 https://www.facebook. com/haveit/. Haveit (2018b). Haveit Facebook Page. Retrieved May 30, 2019 https://www.facebook. com/haveit/posts/901662153327219. Insajderi (2018). “Gishti i mesit nga oda”- për qeverisjen kanunore të Haradinajt. Retrieved June, 2018, from https://insajderi.com/gishti-mesit-nga-oda-perqeverisjen-kanunore-te-haradinajt/. Isin, E. F. (2009). Citizenship in flux: The figure of the activist citizen. Subjectivity, 29, 367–388. Isin, E. F., & Nielsen, G. M. (2008). Introduction: Acts of citizenship. In E. F. Isin, & G. M. Nielsen (Eds.). Acts of citizenship (pp. 1–12). London. UK: Zed Books. Kelmendi, K. (2015). Domestic violence against women in Kosovo: A qualitative study of women's experiences. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(4), 680–702. Kennedy-Pipe, C., & Stanley, P. (2000). Rape in war: Lessons of the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s. The International Journal of Human Rights, 4(3–4), 67–84. Kosovo 2.0, K (2017). Qe një storie. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from https://www.facebook. com/watch/?v=1464800240198455. Kosovo 2.0, K (2018). Qe një storie tjetër... Ngom!. Retrieved October 2, 2018, from https://www.facebook.com/Kosovo2.0/videos/1862876783724130/?hc_ref= ARSjcVXXSsygqwzG5cOM8laFcypCL6qJWZQxU0hU0ZqXaGDKE6QtHyQm SIDKbWKyJ98. Krasniqi, E. (2011). Ilegalja: Women in the Albanian underground resistance movement in Kosovo. Profemina99–114 (Summer/Autumn). Krasniqi, G. (2010). Citizenship as a tool of state-building in Kosovo: Status, rights, and identity in the new state. (Working Paper No. 10. Edinburgh). Krasniqi, V. (2011b). Feminism and nationalism. ProFemina53–58 (Summer/Autumn). KultPlus (2018). HAVEIT – recetë për kryeministrin Haradinaj. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.kultplus.com/arti-pamor/haveit-recete-per-kryeministrinharadinaj/. Luci, N. (2002). Endangering masculinity in Kosovo: Can Albanian women say no? Anthropology of East Europe Review, 20(2), 71–79. Mari, C. (2015, June 11). Thinking of you: A collective healing among skirts. Kosovo 2.0. Retrieved from http://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/thinking-of-you-a-collectivehealing-among-skirts/. Miraftab, F. (2004). Invited and invented spaces of participation: Neoliberal citizenship and feminists' expanded notion of politics. Wagadu, 1, 1–7. Miškovska Kajevska, A. (2017). Feminist activism at war: Belgrade and Zagreb feminists in the 1990s. New York: Routledge. Museum, W. A (2018). Women activists museum. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from http:// www.womenactivistsmuseum.com. Revi, B. (2014). T.H. Marshall and his critics: Reappraising ‘social citizenship’ in the twenty-first century. Citizenship Studies, 18(3–4), 452464. Schwandner-Sievers, S. (2013). The bequest of Ilegalja: Contested memories and moralities in contemporary Kosovo. Nationalities Papers, 41(6), 953–970. Sparks, H. (1997). Dissident citizenship: Democratic theory, political courage, and activist women. Hypatia, 12(4), 74–110. Staeheli, L. A., Attoh, K., & Mitchell, D. (2013). Contested engagements: Youth and the politics of citizenship. Space and Polity. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2013. 780715. Štiks, I. (2006). Nationality and citizenship in the former Yugoslavia: From disintegration to European integration. 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Being an activist: Feminist citizenship through transformations of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav citizenship regimes (no. 28). (Edinburgh). Zaharijević, A. (2015). Dissidents, disloyal citizens and partisans of emancipation: Feminist citizenship in Yugoslavia and post- Yugoslav spaces. Women's Studies International Forum, 49, 93–100.
Conclusion Contemporary feminism in Kosovo is loud, visible, and artistic. Arising from a post-war context where silence became the mode of contention for many women, the new methods of resistance and protests have started openly contesting long-established gender prejudice and discrimination. The new modes of contention, involving art performances, protests, public campaigns and festivals, have established a new manner for feminists to make themselves present and heard in the Kosovo context. By shifting gender from the private sphere to the public sphere where disparities become addressed and criticized and where the status quo is continually challenged, these modes of resistance present a claim to citizenship by women as activist citizens. The art performances constitute an important development, as they address both the institutional as well as societal causes of gender inequality, thus seeking to engage with the root of the problem of disparity. Notably, all the different forms of contention are focused on smashing the patriarchy and the patriarchal system that reinforces gender stereotypes of women. The performances stand in contrast to the image of what a woman should and should not do in a society, thus further lifting the patriarchal shroud by showing anger, by challenging, by talkingback, by being women outside of the traditional view of femininity as passivity. Contemporary feminists thus perform their anger in the Kosovar public space. They ‘air their dirty laundry’ in open spaces, thus bringing the private into the public, making the female body and gender a new space for the development of citizenship in the Kosovo context. References Abdela, L. (2003). Kosovo: Missed opportunities, lessons for the future. Development in Practice, 13(2–3), 208–216. Bilic, B. (2012). We were gasping for air: [post-]Yugoslav anti-war activism and its legacy. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Bonfiglioli, C., Kahlina, K., & Zaharijević, A. (2015). Transformations of gender, sexuality and citizenship in south East Europe. Women's Studies International Forum, 49, 43–47. Deiana, M. A. (2013). Citizenship as (not)belonging? Contesting the replication of gendered and ethnicised exclusions in post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina. In S. Roseneil (Ed.). Beyond citizenship?: Feminism and the transformation of belonging (pp. 184–210). Palgrave Macmillan. Di Lellio, A. (2016). Seeking justice for wartime sexual violence in Kosovo: Voices and silence of women. East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 30(3), 621–643. Fayle, J. (2016, June 16). The Kosovo sisters kissing in public to fight conservatism. Dazed https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/31554/1/art-collectivekosovo-lgbt-artists-have-it-han-vesa-qena.
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