[ALBSA-Info] 'Clash of Civilizations' in Kosova

[zabeli at gmx.de]

without doubting on the story below or in any way justifiying the cruel and
criminal act described in the article below, I just wanted to write down the
whole mentioned Article 31 which was quoted incorrectly by Ms. Eleanor
Beardsley from the Boston Globe:

Book Three - Marriage
Article 31: The Cut Ribbon (wollen fringes attached to belt worn by the
women on the mounatins of Mirditë)

If a wife does not conduct herself properly toward her husband, the Kanun
gives him the right to cut a ribbon from her belt or a lock of her hair, and to
leave her.
The marriage remains in force, and neither the  man nor the woman may marry
again. If the woman is reprimanded and freinds appeal for reconciliation, the
man may take her back.
For two acts, a woman may be shot in the back, and for one act her ribbon
may be cut and she may be left:
a) for adultery
b) for betrayal of hospitality
For these two acts of infidelity, the husband kills his wife, without
requiring protection or a truce and without incurring a blood feud, since the
parents of his killed wife received the price of her blood, gave him a cartridge,
and guaranted her conduct.
For theft or robbery, the husband leaves his wife, but he has no right to
insult his wife in any other way [i.e. to abuse her physically].
The wife who is left, in leaving her husband's house, has no right to take
anything with her except the clothes she is wearing. Her other clothes are
lost to her, since the money her husband paid for her remains to her parents.
If the woman who has been left still has a nursing child, her husband,
although he has left the marriage bed, is obliged to find her a place near his own
house, to give her the child, and to provide her with clothes, shoes, and
food.

from
'The Code of Lekë Dugagjini'
Albanian Text Collected and Arranged by Shtjefën Gjeçov
Gjonlekaj Publishing Company, New York, 1989, page 40/42
Translated by Leonard Fox


best regards,
shyq zabeli


> 
> 
> 
> The Boston Globe, December 09, 2001
> In Kosovo, dying by ´the Code´ 
> 
> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/343/focus/In_Kosovo_dying_by_the_Code_
> +.sh
> tml 
> 
> WORLD 
> 
> 
> 
> Despite progress in the republic´s fledgling democracy, women still 
> have an
> uphill struggle for equal treatment 
> 
> By Eleanor Beardsley, 12/9/2001 
> 
> KOSOVO, Yugoslavia - Haxhere´s grave is clearly visible on the side 
> of the
> hill overlooking her tiny village in eastern Kosovo. The fresh mound of
> earth stands out among the tiny cemetery´s more weathered, grassy 
> plots. 
> 
> The cemetery appears the perfect resting place from a life of toil in 
> the
> surrounding fields. But its tranquil air is disturbingly out of place 
> for a
> 20-year-old woman who had celebrated her wedding only hours before 
> dying in
> an ´´honor killing.´´ 
> 
> Haxhere´s story is a stark reminder that democracy has yet to reach 
> everyone
> in this far-flung corner of the Balkans, even though progress is being 
> made.
> 
> 
> Tomorrow, the members of Kosovo´s first postwar democratically 
> elected
> government will be sworn into office in Pristina. Since the NATO 
> bombing
> forced Slobodan Milosevic´s army to leave Kosovo in June 1999, the 
> province
> has been under the administration of the United Nations. Although
> technically still a part of Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia´s two
> remaining republics, Kosovo will be governed by its own autonomous
> structures. 
> 
> Of the 120 seats in Kosovo´s newly elected general assembly, 34 will 
> go to
> women - a higher female representation than in most Western 
> democracies. And
> in January Kosovo will join the European Union in adopting the euro as 
> its
> official currency. Yet despite this flurry of progress, traditions die 
> hard
> here, especially where women are concerned. 
> 
> On Oct. 7, Haxhere married a young man from a neighboring village. Like 
> all
> ethnic Albanian weddings, the entire family and many of the village´s 
> 300
> residents gathered at the bride´s house for a day of feasting and
> festivities. Afterward, Haxhere went home with her new husband, ready 
> to
> become part of his family and work in his home, as is the custom. 
> 
> But she would never have the chance to fulfill that role. Only a few 
> hours
> into their wedding night, her new husband discovered there was no blood 
> on
> the marital sheets. Thus, he believed Haxhere was not a virgin. Like 
> faulty
> goods, he returned her to her family. 
> 
> After she was brought back home, an argument ensued between Haxhere, 
> her
> mother, and her older brother, who had become head of the family after 
> his
> father died. For the 28-year-old, the shame of this discovery was too 
> great
> to bear. He asked his mother to leave the room. To restore his 
> family´s
> honor he shot his sister seven times in the chest. 
> 
> An ancient code dictated the way Albanians lived in this region for
> centuries. It is called the Code of Leke Dukagjini, known here as 
> ´´the
> Code.´´ Article 31 of the Code states that if your wife does not 
> come to you
> on your wedding day ´´as she should be,´´ you have the right to 
> kill her. 
> 
> Leke Dukagjini was a 15th-century feudal ruler in northern Albania. His 
> Code
> includes specific life instructions on everything from inheritance and
> marriage to how to conduct a blood feud. Although the Code is not legal
> today, some say it is still practiced in parts of Kosovo. 
> 
> In the police station in Gjilane, the biggest town in eastern Kosovo,
> officer Remzi Azemi says he stumbled upon Haxhere´s murder by chance.
> ´´Someone mentioned a young girl who had been married on a Sunday 
> and buried
> on a Monday. Naturally I found this very strange,´´ he says. Like 
> all Kosovo
> Albanians, Azemi knew about the Code, but he never imagined that it was
> still in practice. 
> 
> So he went to investigate. His first step was to find Haxhere´s 
> husband. He
> brought along one of the international police officers working with 
> Kosovo´s
> police force, and a translator, 20-year-old Manushaqe Ibrahimi. 
> 
> ´´When we went to Haxhere´s husband and asked him if he knew what 
> had
> happened, he was laughing,´´ Ibrahimi says. ´´He said it 
> wasn´t his problem
> if Haxhere was now dead because he had nothing to do with her anymore. 
> ...
> He said that according to `our custom,´ she had to go home.´´ 
> 
> Azemi and Ibrahimi then went to question the family. ´´Haxhere´s 
> mother said
> her death was a suicide, but you could tell she knew it wasn´t,´´ 
> says
> Ibrahimi. ´´... On the other hand, Haxhere´s brother ... kept 
> telling us
> that his sister died a natural death.´´ 
> 
> Azemi obtained a court order to exhume the body and arrested the 
> brother.
> When Azemi questioned him in jail, the brother confessed. ´´He said 
> to me,
> `If you don´t tell anybody else, I´ll tell you what 
> happened,´´´ says Azemi.
> ´´And then he said he killed his sister because it was very bad for 
> his
> family that she was not a virgin. That he had to do it. 
> 
> ´´When I asked him how he knew she wasn´t a virgin, he said 
> because her
> husband had told him. 
> 
> ´´When I asked him why he believed the husband over his own sister, 
> he said,
> `Why are you saying that to me now?´ Like he had never thought of 
> believing
> his sister until it was too late.´´ 
> 
> ´´Machismo is at the root of all political problems in the 
> Balkans,´´ says
> Whit Mason, a writer with the International Crisis Group, a prominent
> political think tank on the region. 
> 
> ´´Especially the idea of honor,´´ he says. ´´And when 
> you´re putting your
> energies into abstract notions instead of concrete things, it is 
> obviously
> self-destructive. You see it over and over here.´´ 
> 
> According to Flora Macula, a Kosovo Albanian who works with a women´s 
> non- 
> 
> governmental organization in Pristina, Kosovo society is in a state of
> confusion, particularly with regard to the role of women. 
> 
> ´´During the last 10 years the Albanian family has become very 
> strong
> because it was the only institution that could support and protect 
> us,´´
> says Macula. 
> 
> ´´Traditionally, the woman´s role is to take care of the house 
> and family
> and to have children,´´ she says. ´´But now there is this 
> infusion of
> capital and opportunity, and often the young daughter who speaks 
> English and
> has a job with an international organization is the principal 
> breadwinner of
> the family. ... Everything is moving so fast now that society cannot 
> catch
> up. And rural areas are left even farther behind.´´ 
> 
> Honor killings such as Haxhere´s show the harsh reality that exists 
> for many
> Kosovar women - especially in rural areas. Since Haxhere´s death, 
> another
> young girl living in the west of Kosovo was shot and killed by her 
> brother
> for bringing shame on the family by moving in with her boyfriend. 
> 
> On the other end of the moral spectrum, hundreds of women (some from 
> Kosovo
> but most from Moldova and Ukraine) find themselves the victims of 
> illegal
> trafficking and prostitution rings that operate brothels throughout the
> province. 
> 
> The international community is trying to increase opportunities for 
> women in
> Kosovo. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the
> pan-European body responsible for organizing November´s election of 
> Kosovo´s
> first government, required that one-third of the candidates running for 
> the
> general assembly be women. Although this resulted in a strong 
> representation
> of women in the new assembly, it remains to be seen whether their 
> presence
> will make a difference in the lives of women in Kosovo. 
> 
> ´´Many people think that domestic violence is hidden under the 
> surface
> here,´´ says Jim Cooper, an American police officer helping to 
> train
> Kosovo´s fledgling police force. ´´It´s not that it´s hidden, 
> it´s just
> approved of.´´ As an investigator with the newly formed Domestic 
> Violence
> Unit, Cooper works on the front lines, where change runs head-on into
> tradition. 
> 
> ´´In the old traditions it was simply OK for a husband to 
> discipline his
> wife. We are trying to make it clear to men that the old ways will no 
> longer
> be tolerated.´´ 
> 
> But according to Cooper, the police receive little support from 
> Kosovo´s
> court system in prosecuting domestic violence cases. ´´Some of the 
> attitudes
> of local judges in Kosovo concerning victims of domestic violence and 
> sexual
> abuse are basically medieval,´´ he says. 
> 
> Still, Renata Winter, an international judge sitting on Kosovo´s 
> Mitrovica
> District Court, does not believe all traditions in Kosovo should 
> necessarily
> be scrapped. She holds that parts of the Code could provide the key to
> bringing Kosovo society into the 21st century on familiar terms. 
> 
> ´´The Code of Leke Dukagjini is really the only law that has been
> consistently respected here from the beginning until now,´´ says 
> Winter.
> ´´It was created to stop the proliferation of unlawful killing, and 
> when it
> comes to truces, mediation, and the settlement of disputes, it is 
> extremely
> clear and detailed.´´ 
> 
> >From Haxhere´s grave, young girls can be seen playing in a yard 
> below. Their
> laughter floats up in the breeze. Watching them, one wonders which
> traditions will shape their futures. Will it be the Code of Leke 
> Dukagjini
> or new traditions started tomorrow by 34 women in Pristina? 
> 
> 
> ***Alb-Club***
> ____________________________________________________
> Alb-Club mailing list: Alb-Club at alb-net.com
> http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/alb-club
> 

-- 
GMX - Die Kommunikationsplattform im Internet.
http://www.gmx.net