Albania: Violence against women

[krajina warrior]

Every day… if I had bruises around one eye, he hit the other one, every day for three years so that you would not be able to recognize me, my face wasn’t a human face"

"I am carrying the past around inside me. No one can see my heart, how it is inside."

An estimated one in three women in Albania have been hit, beaten or subjected to other physical violence within their families. Some have been raped, some have been killed.

Husbands, former husbands and partners are responsible for most of these acts of violence against women – abuses which are often condoned by the wider community. Violence against women is widely tolerated on grounds of tradition, even at the highest levels of the government, police and judiciary.

Violence against women is an abuse of the human rights of women and girls. It violates their rights to mental and physical integrity, to liberty and security of the person, to freedom of expression, the right to choice in marriage and the basic requirement of non-discrimination. Violence may amount to torture and in extreme cases, may violate the right to life.

There is no specific legislation against domestic violence in Albania. A general acceptance of violence in the family is imbedded in Albanian society, and thus many women do not understand the concept of domestic violence as a criminal offence. An activist from an Albanian non-governmental organization (NGO) said: "They have seen their mothers beaten, and they think it is normal to be beaten, or to be shouted at by the husband or brother or mother-in-law, and that it is their husband’s right to beat them."

But there is movement for change in Albanian society. In January 2006 a coalition of Albanian NGOs presented a petition to parliament signed by 20,000 Albanians calling for a change in the law to help prevent violence within the family.

The extent of the violence

"They say in Albania, one in three women are beaten by their husbands, in Shkroda we say it’s two and a half out of three." A doctor in the town of Shkodra.

"Violence happens everywhere: at the police station, at home, at school – there is a cycle of violence in the whole society," an NGO activist told Amnesty International. "Most women do not usually report such violence to the police: they don’t understand that it is a criminal act, and many of them are violent to their own children – they see it as a tool for education".

Much violence within the family involves guns. The large number of small arms and light weapons in circulation in Albania – an estimated 200,000 – contributes to high levels of gun crime, including in domestic violence.

[AAA]

What, you don't think men are victims of abuse and violence as well? Here in the U.S. violence against men is not only authorized,it is openly encouraged. Tennessee is known as "a woman's state". The misandric police and authorities do nothing to combat the violence against men. Even the raping of men is kept silent by the state governemnt and the state controlled media.

http://www.batteredmen.com/

http://www.menstuff.org/issues/byissue/domest...

http://www.aest.org.uk/survivors/male/myths_a...

In 2002, one in every eight rape victims were male.(RAINN, 2003)
This number is climbing despite the fact that the rapes committed aginst males are ignored.

http://www.hopeforhealing.org/male.html

[AAA]

http://www.nycagainstrape.org/survivors_facts...

http://after-words.org/mrape2.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/18/g...

http://www.blogher.com/combating-stereotypes-...

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jses... !1382274848!-954900154?docId=5 001830144

http://www.odh.ohio.gov/ASSETS/BB0362B34C4040...

[AAA]

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jses... !-954900154?docId=5 001830144