Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Chapter 3 • Anton K. Berishaj
The narrator of this story did not, at any given moment and within any
given context, condemn the woman. She was considered a victim of a conflict
and in no way was it thought that she might have induced this violence
upon herself. How, then, can the male, traditionally the moral power
of the family, deny his responsibility to resolve the case, as has happened
in recent times? How can he expulse his duty from his family, together
with the victim, as also occurs now? Sevdie Ahmeti, the director of the
Centre for the Protection of Women and Children, which has a base in
Pristina, discussed instances of “violence after violence”. Women who
have been raped are often silent about the acts of violence committed
against them, even in Western Europe. In Kosovo, however, this has
become a phenomenon. Silence in Western Europe is often justified by the
wish to spare the victim the torment of legal hearings, but it can also be
explained by the need to spare them the ignominy of inappropriate treatment
by their family and by those close to them. In Kosovo, this second
reason has come to supercede the first: although a representative number
of women agree to speak of being raped during the war, they often also
discuss the “violence after the violence” which they experienced, of
aggressive acts committed by those from whom they least expected violence,
those who should have protected and supported them through their
suffering.Another example of this “violence following violence” might be
found in Agim Sopi’s recent film, the first production about war in
Kosovo, which focuses on violence which victimizes women. One scene
of the film takes place somewhere in Junik, a town in western Kosovo,
which had long been a site of battle. There, two Albanian sisters fall prey
to sexual violence, and one of them is killed after she is raped. In the plot,
the director found no other resolution but to portray the suicide of the other
sister. When this film was released, no critics or viewers protested its message.
However, women from Junik complained of the film’s portrayal of
Junik as a town of raped women - a rather odd response, but perhaps symbolic
of the fate of the Kosovar Albanian woman. As a woman, she is now
sentenced to bear the trauma of rape within her for life, without hope of
being allowed to discuss her suffering openly, of explaining the circumstances
of the crime, nor of denouncing the rapist, without hope of being
offered the help and support of her family and community. As a woman,
she is again made a victim, this time, of her own family.
In the Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, clause 13 discusses “the duties of husband
and wife”. Paragraph 32, point b, specifies that “The husband has a
duty to protect his wife’s honour and to keep her from having to complain
of any needs”. The duty to protect spousal honour is reciprocal for husband
and wife. In the next clause of the Kanun it is written, “The wife has the
duty: a) to protect the husband’s honour”. It is not, however, required that
the obligation must stand when she cannot possibly fulfil it. The rules of
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