Not a fairy tale but… First chapter, second story: A Young Woman for a Free Uni (Pristina-Belgrade, October ’96) or A Family-Like Friendship

16 Feb Not a fairy tale but… First chapter, second story: A Young Woman for a Free Uni (Pristina-Belgrade, October ’96) or A Family-Like Friendship

A Young Woman for a Free Uni (Pristina-Belgrade, October ’96) or A Family-Like Friendship
-Second story of the February monthly chapter-

Written by Dejana Cvetković
Voiceover by Marija Drndić

Women in Kosovo during the 1990s played a crucial role in maintaining community life under repression. At a time when most Albanians were fired from their jobs, and pupils and students were left without access to education, women organized health, educational, and peace initiatives. Classes took place in private homes within the framework of a parallel school system. Police and regime repression was in full force, recalls Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala, who during 1997 was one of the leaders of the student movement formed in response to the expulsion of Albanian students from the University of Pristina.

During that period, Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala helped women get an education and volunteered in parallel health institutions. Albanian women did not have access to public hospitals, and many, as she states, were afraid to even try seeking help there due to the expulsion of Albanian doctors.

Women participated in various activities against the regime’s apartheid.

“I deliberately say ‘regime’s,’ because the people are not to blame. Women and young girls joined the peace movement, and the majority of Kosovo’s female citizens united and refused to allow their sons to go to mandatory military service. That is how feminism began to form, at least as I remember it, because I was 15, 16, and then 18 years old at the time. As a high school student, I participated in all civic gatherings and protests,” says Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala.

She first got involved in the Albanian-Serbian youth dialogue in 1996, as a member of the Independent Union of Students in Pristina. Protests for the liberation of university spaces began on October 1st, and it was then that she began to study and use the Serbian language more intensively, something she hadn’t had the opportunity to do before. The protests were supported by individuals from Serbia, the region, as well as other parts of Europe and the world. At one of the student protests, she met activists from Women in Black, among whom were Staša Zajović and Professor Lino Veljak.

After that, Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala decided to visit Belgrade and participate in the Women in Black protests.

“For me, that was encouraging at the time; it was my crossroads in life. Women in the middle of Belgrade stood with a sign reading ‘Albanian women are our sisters.’ You know that feeling when you think you are no good, that you are nobody and nothing in this world, that you are a third-class citizen. You don’t have basic rights in life, and then you go to a big center, to a city like Belgrade, and you see a piece of paper held by some small woman that says ‘Albanian women are our sisters.’ That was a new turning point in my life,” she states.

Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala was one of the participants in the peace action “Bread for Drenica” in 1998, when women from the Albanian community set off on foot, carrying loaves of bread, to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the area under police siege.

The march was stopped before they reached their destination, as Serbian police forces intervened and prevented them from continuing, but photos quickly reached the media and drew the attention of the international public to the situation in the area.

“Drenica was surrounded by police forces; it was impossible to enter. Telephone lines were cut off; I don’t even remember how the information that bread was lacking there reached us. The police didn’t let us continue the march; they were very rough. I wasn’t injured; I managed to run away. I received beatings from the police several times. When we were running away, there were tears and fear, but we also laughed while we ran and ate that bread. We were young and crazy,” recalls Nartilë Salihu-Bala.

Solidarity, as she explains, mainly came from Belgrade, more so than from the Serbian community in Kosovo, which was under the strong influence of regime propaganda. Women in Belgrade had greater access to information, free media, and the civil sector at that time.

“We lived on the same territory, but separated from each other. Women in Belgrade were against the wars in the region, as well as against internal problems in Serbia. It was easier for them to meet with Albanian women in Kosovo. Nationalism was fed daily; it was said that Albanians were wild, that Kosovo was holy land. Coexistence was never shown in the media, only bad things. When you don’t have access to any other media, only the public service TV, where are you supposed to get information? That human cooperation—not political, not activism—those relationships were destroyed,” points out Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala.

Although they make up the majority of the population in the Balkans, women are, as she states, almost everywhere second-class citizens and decide almost nothing. Therefore, she believes it is crucial for women to organize and cooperate.

“Facing the past needs to be at an institutional level, not just through the activities of various organizations a few times a year. We need to adapt the strategies of others who have gone through the same things to our way of thinking, mentality, and cultural level in the Balkans. We need to find a solution and start working systemically. I am against nationalist feminism. You can’t be a Serb woman and support only Serb women, or an Albanian woman and support only Albanian women—that leads nowhere,” she emphasizes.

The relationship between Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala and Women in Black continues to this day; that relationship has become more spiritual, personal, and almost familial.

“It is no longer just solidarity, but a friendship that over time began to look like family. I still help them with translations. When I was pregnant in 2007, I was in a hospital in Belgrade. I lived in their space then; my daughter is a daughter of Women in Black. That is more than friendship, more than cooperation, more than faith in the civil sector. For me, especially them, as well as other activists, are true heroines from Serbia,” says Mihane Nartilë Salihu-Bala.