When I moved back to Kosovo four years ago, I experienced how very uncomfortable it was to be a woman on the street - especially in the summer. What I thought were just isolated incidents of being followed or harassed turned into a pattern of behaviour, and I quickly learned to think about not only what I’m wearing, but which streets I choose to walk on, how I dress, how I walk, even my facial expression (don’t look too friendly, don’t smile). I’ve detailed some of those experiences here, and they are quite simply a fact of life for women in Kosovo.
In 2014, the Kosovo Women’s Network held the country’s very first Take Back the Night campaign. Participants of the campaign were asked to post fairly unobjectionable comments (statuses) like “Respect is sexy” on Facebook, followed by the hashtag #TakeBacktheNight, or its Albanian equivalent, #NataEshteEJona. The backlash online was vicious. Male acquaintances of mine (whom I quickly removed from my friends list), either laughed at the campaign’s alleged “silliness,” were offended at the suggestion that they too, may be responsible for Kosovo’s sexual harassment problem - or worst of all, outright blamed women and girls for inviting harassment with their behaviour or choice of clothing.
