Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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Chapter 1 • Silvia Salvatici<br />
her English and broadened her employable skills. She came away from<br />
this experience with a still vivid sense of usefulness and power, of personal<br />
and professional fulfilment, in sharp contrast to the “impression of<br />
having just your soul, your body and nothing else”, that is often central in<br />
refugees’ accounts. After her experience in the camp, it was easier for<br />
Sadete to find a job within an international organization. Ever since<br />
the day of that meeting in the refugee camp, Sadete has never stopped<br />
working.<br />
The massive presence of international organizations and NGOs is significant<br />
in that it provides more women with new employment opportunities,<br />
but also because it offers alternative models of feminine roles, even as the<br />
women of Kosovo regain their freedom of movement, and even as newly<br />
flourishing forms of entertainment are also changing the shapes and<br />
rhythms of their daily lives. Lindita, Mimoza and Blerta are three friends<br />
in their twenties, and living in Pristina. During the NATO bombings, they<br />
were all refugees abroad, but came back immediately after the end of the<br />
war. Since Mimoza and Blerta came back earlier than their families, the<br />
three friends lived alone together and experienced a period of extraordinary<br />
independence. In their words: “Well, our parents left us very free<br />
even before, but in that period it was different… It was… It was very good.<br />
Actually we felt sorry when our parents came back”. At the same time,<br />
they were employed by different international agencies and their jobs gave<br />
them a certain financial independence (only Mimoza gives a portion of her<br />
salary to her family). While they had not planned to begin working before<br />
completing their education, the war left them in a different environment,<br />
where they were presented with opportunities they had never before imagined.<br />
The three friends spend their free time in pubs, cafeterias, and nightclubs.<br />
They told interviewers that they were trying to enjoy themselves, as<br />
being “in the face of death” had taught them “what life is about: to feel free<br />
to do what you feel like”.<br />
Lindita, Mimoza and Blerta also felt that gender relations were different in<br />
post-war Kosovo:<br />
46<br />
Blerta: Three or four years ago here in Prishtina there were only<br />
girls and only a small number of boys because many of them<br />
were working abroad. I think at that time one boy had three<br />
or four girlfriends.<br />
Lindita: Maybe more! But now I think that it is just a habit of the<br />
past. They used to have many girlfriends, for example most<br />
of them used to go out for two weeks and then they broke up<br />
and started with another one, so it was a habit. So, if you<br />
managed to be with somebody longer than two weeks, it was<br />
a good relationship. […] I think that the number now is<br />
equal, it’s half-half, because many guys came back from