Description
This paper traces the main features, goals and claims of feminist activism in minority communities in Kosovo. The vast body of research that has focused on Kosovo in the last decades mostly engages with the consequences of the NATO intervention and subsequent liberal peacebuilding and interventionist projects, as well as the resistances developed under such contexts. However, they largely fail to analyse feminist encounters, resistances and activism through gender lenses. Simultaneously, when referring to feminist activism in Kosovo, most research focuses on the women’s movements, organisations, protests and initiatives that emanate from the majority Albanian community. Very scarce research has been conducted on the episodes of feminist activism that have taken place within minority communities (Serb, Roma, Ashkalia, etc.). Through in-depth interviews and focus groups with women’s rights and feminist activists, this paper maps such agencies and their main features, and locates them within the broader narrative of feminist activism and militancy in Kosovo. The analysis is guided by three main elements: a) spaces of action and self-identification as feminist actors; b) relationship with feminist initiatives within other minority communities and the Albanian community; and c) relationship with state institutions and international organisms.
