The women in Kosovo have suffered greatly from the conflict between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, especially when Kosovo was under the control of the Slobadan Milosevic regime. Rape was a major weapon employed by Serbian paramilitaries under Milosevic, as a means of ethnic cleansing and control.
Most women today refrain from talking about what happened to them during the war. Married women face being abandoned by their husbands and losing their children if they acknowledge that they have been raped. If not yet married, a women who was raped risks not finding a husband if her story becomes public. Rape has become so taboo that many women are even afraid to admit that it happened.
The effect is one of grave psychological and legal consequences in the region. Raped women suffer from the “guilt” of having been raped, which in turn brings greater anxiety, stress and depression to their daily lives. Instead of coming to terms with rape and moving on, raped women are often condemned to live with the effects alone every day. This uncomfortable silence obstructs prosecutions, because witnesses can be difficult, if not impossible, to find to testify against individual rapists or commanders of sexual assault. The Observer newspaper in the UK estimates that up to 20,000 women were raped before NATO’s intervention.
In addition to psychological isolation, financial hardships are a real threat to the well being of Kosovar women and their families. Most adult men left for Western Europe in search of work after the war. In remote villages especially, where there is lack of phones and a working postal system, husbands and fathers often become oblivious to the home situation of those who they have left behind. Worse are those who have lost all adult male members of their families. In such families, the women are under immense pressure as both caregivers and providers. |
