SEXUAL HARASSMENT ON THE STREETS OF KOSOVO
It is sad that there is no logical reason why these things happen, why someone allows him to harass you, to tell you how you look today, what part of you he likes, you can’t justify being seen and treated like somebody’s doll, this is justified only by the patriarchy of our country that can call a girl or a woman whatever they like, that that power cannot respond. Where the patriarchy does not take into account any rape because in your own eyes you have sought to experience that pain.
Illustration: Argjira Kukaj
How does it feel that the curfew is set by the sunset, or to not be able to enjoy the breeze of summer nights, in the streets of your own country? How does it feel when at the end of the day a word hurts the strongest creature? Do you know that after centuries of fearing and fighting against foreign blood, our blood is frightening us today? For you that every question reminds you of something, you who today are called an object, you who today for your body shapes are afraid, for you that the pain of the unwashed and strangled hand has suffocated you and for you that the touch of a foreign hand has stopped your voice.
Dear beloved, in words, how do you feel to know that 74% think that the victim should be blamed. How can the vulgar vocabulary of a 50-year-old show which part of the body he would have touched or which part of your body he likes the most, implicate you?
40.5% of the population think that the catcalls that takes place in the streets of Kosovo is taken as a compliment by our youth. I do not know what youth is about or how it is possible to associate fear with compliment or pleasure. We have been accustomed to the fear of the night since a very young age, and over time we have come to realize that the darkness of the day has overtaken us. We are growing up in a place where if you’re a girl you’re cursed, growing up as a girl is captive, in a place where a little exposed skin leads to harassment and in a place where you are unprotected from the eyes full of greed. And at the end of the day, the heroines who are facing such horrors today are preparing to feel the same fears tomorrow, after a week or a year. How normal it is that right after the tales you have heard about monsters, you’re facing them, except that this time the physical deformity returns into mental deformity. How does it feel to have your body, and to not feel like it’s yours? How to learn to say “no” and to not be accepted from others. The cry of the one who cannot speak is the loudest, the shed tears of the victims wet us all and the run of those fleeing from someone who does not receive “no” as an answer is shaking the earth, the earth of those who have the same experiences. We have not heard compliments for a long time, because every compliment has turned into hatred. For even much longer we have not heard an apology, an apology for every sleepless night, for every tear of fear, for every rape that has happened on the streets of Kosovo, for every word that has stopped our heartbeat, for every night we could not enjoy.
How can you imagine such a 24-hour period? Where you wait for the morning with stress, can you fulfil the goal before it the night comes, because when the sun sets in our country, safety sets with it as well. When you wake up in the morning and instead of feeling good about yourself, you have to think about what to wear so that you do not have to hear the words of shallow and sexist minds on the streets.
How is it that a 10-year-old goes through the same routine, as children we learn to hate ourselves, we have heard harassment from the most horrible to those that have afflicted us as beings. As children everyone stuck it in our heads that if a hand of a stranger touches you, you’re powerless, these things were taught at us at times when we should have learned how to love ourselves.
Sadly, there is no logical reason why this happens, why someone is allowed to harass you, and to tell you how good you’re looking today, witch part of you they like the most, it is not justified that others see us as toys. This is justified only by the patriarchate of our country, so others can freely say whatever you what, because she does not have the strength to fight back. Where patriarchy does not take into account any kind of violation, cause on the eyes of everyone you were asking to experience that pain.
We can be called victims, because we are such. But you can not call us weak, because we fight this phenomenon daily, with our whole being, the street warriors of our country.
About the author: Lendina Balaj, 19 years old from Prishtina, is a high school student.
This grant is supported by the ‘Civil Society programme for Albania and Kosovo’, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF) in partnership with Partners Albania for Change and Development (PA). The content and recommendations do not represent the official position of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF).
