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The Women's Story

An article on domestic violence in Abania from Le Monde diplomatique.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The article is full of untruths:

The sentence "A resurgence of Albania’s ancient customary law, the Kanun, which allows a man to beat and publicly humiliate his wife," is simply untrue. I'm not defending Kanun but its source is in Middle Age when in the rest of Europe people were burnt for nothing. Furthermore, it suggests that that's what's happening in Albania all the time; women beaten in the street from their husbands and in my 23 years in Albania I cannot recall a single case.

Violence against women is bad; but it happens everywhere. I live in Germany and here one hears all the time that even VIPs beat their wives. By lying nothing is solved.

Anyway a very nice blog; some World Cup atmosphere from Albania would be nice :)
ITS said…
Yeah, media always likes to blow things out of proportion. That's what media does. What good would an article be where it was pointed out that women are treated with outmost respect through Albania?

Nobody would want to read that.
Boring!

Kanun is only taken in consideration in about 2% of Northern Albania. Anybody south of Tirana couldn't tell you what Kanun is...

Anyway, here is an American joke for you:

-What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?
-Nothing. You already told her twice.

/one ticket to hell please
Anonymous said…
Hi,
I got diffrent point of veiw, i am albanian,Women in poor countryside in Albania treat some time badly but allways that dipends from education,poor education bad behavier in any case whatever that happens,in Albania or abroude ,i know too from news violence against women is global problem in world,
why you picked up albania ????
Bad and good is any where even in WEST
is not eazy to know albanian,you need to go very deep to be sucsesfully,..thier heart is to big
olli said…
Is abuse of women a problem in Albania? Yes. Is it a problem in the rest of the world? Yes. Is it worse in Albania than in the rest of the world? I don't know. I imagine it is worse than some places; not as bad as others.

Why pick up Albania? Because I live in Albania.

Is the article truthful? Untruthful? Fair? Unfair? That's for you to decide.

I list occasional articles I come across on Albania becuase I think other people might be interested in how Albania is perceived out there.

I'm working on a World Cup in Tirana post. Unfortunately the games keep getting in the way.
Lily said…
Violence against women in Albania is a serious problem. Does the fact that it exists everywhere else in the world somehow make it more acceptable, therefore we shouldn't mention it? I don't understand why people get so touchy and defensive,no-one said that all women in Albania are mistreated, just accept that quite a few are.

However, I think that article has many, many inaccuracies and it doesn't seem very well written or particularly well researched. The point about the Kanun (as evil as it is) allowing a man to humiliate his wife is absolutely untrue.If anything,many more men are hurt by the recent resurgence of the Kanun in small areas of Albania than women.Also, I'm not sure the article explains how the availability of guns has contributed to domestic abuse. Maybe murders using guns are on the rise but I don't understand why general domestic violence would increase significantly due to guns.
MĂ«rgimtari said…
The Kanun is a fascinating concept, which is why it's mentioned in a lot of articles, but I'm fairly certain it's just used as an excuse. Nobody "really" follows the Kanun, not even the 2% of Northern Albania that somebody below mentioned.

Years back, in New York, a man shot and killed the woman he was having an affair with and her father and the papers reported it as a man acting out an ancient code of laws, blah, blah, blah. He wasn't following the Kanun (otherwise he wouldn't have been sleeping with another man's wife), he was just a jackass.

As for Southern Albanians not hearing the word Kanun...being able to tell you what the Kanun is...are you talking about the mute Southern Albanians???
MĂ«rgimtari said…
Another thing...I don't know for sure, but I bet domestic abuse in the Balkans is pretty high compared to, say, France.

Instead of blaming the media for blowing it out of proportion, why don't we say something like, "Hmm...this might be a problem amoung our people. What can we do to stop it?"

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