Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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<strong>Psychosocial</strong> <strong>Notebook</strong>, Volume 2, October 2001<br />
united. These are the only crimes for which prohibition under the Kanun,<br />
however rigid it is, cannot allow for a degree of flexibility, cannot make<br />
room for reason and the institution of mediation.<br />
Recent practice, however, has provided instances of rape and responses not<br />
aligned with Kanun norms. Instead of exploring the possibility of revenge<br />
towards those who committed this crime, most missions of violent retributive<br />
punishment have ended on the person of the victim. In no possible<br />
interpretation, however, does the Kanun law advocate the victim’s repression<br />
or condemnation. Rape is not treated as the victim’s transgression, but<br />
as the unforgivable immorality of the rapist, or as a call to revenge. The<br />
Kanun makes no mention of the victim in the context of retaliatory measures.<br />
In other words, the rape of women is understood and treated as accidental,<br />
a terrible misfortune, not as a circumstance which seals the victim’s<br />
fate. The Kanun makes no reference to the victim as stained, polluted or<br />
fouled, but rather, discusses the dishonoured family, home, brotherhood<br />
and/or kin. Violence committed against women, according to the Kanun,<br />
cannot be “cured” by her expulsion and public judgement. Customary law<br />
provides no alternative but revenge taken on the rapist, and responsibility<br />
for this falls on the bearers of arms, not on the defenceless woman. An illustration<br />
of this was narrated to me many years ago by Mark Doshi, one of<br />
the men legendary in the Upper-Shkodra Highlands for his ability to mediate<br />
and settle blood feuds between families:<br />
In a village in the vicinity of Shkodra, two prestigious families entered<br />
into a conflict which soon culminated in the rape of a woman. One of the<br />
women was abducted and held in captivity for three nights. After the<br />
third night, she was set free. There was no dilemma regarding the actions<br />
that needed to be taken. There was, nonetheless, a dilemma as how to<br />
create a framework to correspond to the weight of the crime which would<br />
also be in accordance with customary law, especially as there was a<br />
growing risk that armed conflict could emerge with more far reaching<br />
consequences. Whole groups of mediators could not find an adequate<br />
formula for a resolution. Later on, my intervention was required, since<br />
according to custom, once those close to the family fail, more distant<br />
mediators can become involved. Without giving it much thought, I<br />
offered this solution: the family that had abducted the woman, although<br />
they claimed that they had not abused her, would have to give the victimized<br />
family one of their mature women to be held for the same period<br />
of time as the victim. After this period, the damage would be equalized<br />
and the case would be closed. There would be no need for a blood feud.<br />
But what happened was what I had expected: the guilty party did not<br />
accept this solution. Their alternative proposal was that they be made to<br />
suffer three blood feuds. And that is what happened! The family of the<br />
abducted woman killed three male members of the guilty family in an act<br />
of revenge, as an equivalent to the three nights the woman was made to<br />
spend in its house. And thus the case was closed. 3<br />
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