'My' mask
A confession about the gift that was imposed on me.
|2017.09.28
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The voice of the mask, the surest voice there is, told me that I was a man, and that men do not know fear, and that there is nothing beyond the man. So no one could face the man. The man was the ultimate achievement. Man.
I started to love cooking. Sometimes, when no one was at home, I started to cook for myself. The mask hated the mixed smell of smoke and food.
“Oh come on, Besnik. It’s an Audi. The same as any other car. Do you now how nice you’ll look in an Audi, since you’re short? It’ll make you look bigger. A proper man.”
Love. I still feel like shouting this word out. Because I haven’t said it enough until now.
Besnik Leka
Besnik Leka works for CARE International on the Young Men Initiative program, where he has run many workshops with students to challenge traditional gender roles. He started his master’s degree studies in sociology at the University of Prishtina in 2016.
This story was originally written in Albanian.