NYT: In place dominated by former rebels, Kosovo women find power in voting box

Andrew Higgins, New York Times

Saranda Boguyevci looks fearlessly at a pile of holes caused by bullets in the yard wall, left over by a massacre of two decades ago that struck most of her family and that left 16 wounds in her body.

She says her mind has erased the visual memories of the massacre of “Scorpions”, the Serbian paramilitary unit. But, she says, “I can still smell the soil mixed with the smell of blood. ”

Boguyevci's survival was against the likelihood of survival. She was left thinking she was dead in a troop in her neighbour's yard, while her subsequent determination to testify against the men who killed her mother, grandmother, two brothers and four other relatives made her a symbol of unusual courage in Kosovo, a country that still has signs of the war trauma of the ninth years.

But Mrs. Boguyevci, 35, is much more than a symbol. It is part of an unusual wave of women being elected in the Kosovo Assembly, which declared independence in 2008 but remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. When the final results of the February 14th elections were announced in Pristina on Thursday, they indicated that women have won seats in the more than never before -- about 40 per cent of the total.

Nazlie Bala, a women's rights activist who had helped out The KLA during the war says the power and determination of Saranda Bogujevci has made it a symbol of the bitter experiences and expectations of Kosovo. It's a survivor. She's as hard as stone. That's our truth”, says Mrs. Bala.

While Bogujevci takes her place in the new legislature, which will elect Kosovo's new president, she wants this post, which is highest in the country, to go for another woman and another war survivor, Vjosa Osmani.

Lady Osmani, who has been a lawyer for the president's office by November, when her predecessor was arrested for war crimes, is expected to be fully elected in this post next days. Ms. Osmani, who ran the elections on the same list with Mrs. Bogujevci, won more votes than any other candidate and also more votes than anyone since Kosovo began holding elections, two decades ago.

In an interview, Ms. Osmani says her performance in the election shows that “Kosovo is not only ready for women's president, but voted for such a”, in spite of the embedded misogy and a <x2 patriarchal memory built over the centuries”.

Rival candidate for president Ramush Haradinaj, former commander of The KLA and former security of nightclubs said during the campaign that Serbia would enjoy, if Mrs. Osmani were elected president, because she (Serbia) would fear a powerful man like him, preferring “to a weak woman”.

The challenges the new lawmakers face are vast. Corruption is too high, inequality is huge and development is scarce. About a third of the population is unemployed, while the rate of youth unemployment is over 50 percent and women are 80 percent, according to some estimates. Even though 60 percent of university graduates are girls and women, 70 percent of job offers are given to men, says Lady Bala, an activist.

Igballe Rugova, an activist for women's rights, says voters are now viewing women “not as wives of quotas, but as politicians who give promises, keep them and deserve votes”.Express Journal