Ermira Danaj: ‘Patriarchal norms and expectations cannot be brought down overnight’
Talking Balkan Feminism (Part 2) — Prominent feminist from Albania talks about the neoliberal influence on the gender perspective.
|2018.09.04
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"Allowing a type of patriarchy was a kind of compromise from the people in power, so as not to turn everything upside down."
"And in fact, post socialist Albania is — I hope not for long — a very productive terrain for the blossoming of neoliberalism in the gender perspective."
"When a politician says that he’s a feminist this adds to his ‘charm’ as a politician. This doesn’t happen when a woman in politics identifies herself the same way."
"In an environment dominated by men, where political intrigues intervene in every space of debate, there is absolutely no place for big issues such as discrimination and violence against more than half of the members of the society."
"I’m not hopeful of social development as long as ‘women’s issues’ are seen as extra work."
"Not every leftist is a feminist. In fact, there have been cases of leftist organizations or parties that have been identified by different sorts of misogyny and sexism."
Gresa Hasa
Gresa Hasa is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Shota, an Albanian feminist magazine. She is an independent publicist, regularly contributing political commentary in Albanian, regional and often international media. Previously, she was engaged in grassroots political organizing in Albania. She currently resides in Vienna, Austria, where she continues her academic and professional career.
This story was originally written in Albanian.