SHKODà‹R, Nov. 14 – The University of Shkodra hosted a commemorating ceremony in honor of dissident, Musine Kokalari, on Tuesday. Scholars from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Italy attended the event, where it was highlighted that Kokalari was the first woman to publish a book in Albania, a symbol of communist resistance and an advocator of a democratic and pluralist Albania.
Professor Hamid Xhaferi, from the University of South-East Europe in Tetovo, said that Kokalari was not allowed to build her ideal democratic vision because of the harsh oppression of the communist regime, which imprisoned and send her to internment, but did not manage to break her spirit.
Meanwhile, Eduard Grishaj, expert of the Historic Museum of Shkodra, said that Kokalari’s life and work are in themselves the message that has been passed down, to this day, to the younger generations. Other scholars that participated mentioned the unique aspects and features of Kokolari’s political activity and literary, ethnographic and linguistic creativity, stressing how important it is to further study her work.
Kokalari was among over 30 writers from Albania, France, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to be considered by the first meeting of the ‘Committee of Three’, in 1960, the precursor to the present day International PEN Writers in Prison Committee. In 1993 Kokalari was posthumously declared a ‘Martyr for Democracy’ by the President of Albania and a school in Tirana now bears her name. Musine Kokalari’s writings were banned by the Albanian authorities and destroyed.
