Marital rape, ‘legitimate’ and granted in Kosovo
A crime not recognized by authorities and survivors alike.
|2019.12.19
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But when I ask whether there was any time when they didn’t want to have sex but were forced to, the response is different.
Her husband broke her hand, split her head open with a glass and shaved her head bald, but she says that the sexual violence was the most difficult to endure.
But for many women who survived wartime violence, the sexual abuse didn’t end there.
“We have noted a tendency to somehow avoid sexual violence among the groups who have drafted laws. I don’t know why this is.”
“The Social Work Center must also visit victims' violent families and take concrete steps toward the rehabilitation of the victim, the children as witnesses of violence, and the violent husband.”
Lumturije Ibra, Center for the Protection of Women (Peja)“We must work with abusers, and this work should be an essential component of efforts to eliminate violence against women.”
Sakibe Doli, domestic violence counselor“The question is, how much control do women have over their bodies?”
Eliza Shporta, U.S. Embassy psychologist
Shqipe Gjocaj
Shqipe Gjocaj is a feminist activist, gender specialist, and an independent journalist. She is a regular contributor to Prishtina Insight where she writes on gender issues and human rights. Her articles have also been published in Kosovo2.0, sbunker, and Reuters. Shqipe Gjocaj works with non-governmental organizations on projects related to the same issues. In 2017, she took part in the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence. Shqipe is a K2.0 Human Rights Journalism Fellowship program fellow (2019 cycle).
This story was originally written in Albanian.