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Articles Peter R. Prifti ARTICLES PETER R. PRIFTI (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.) The Albanian Women's Struggle for Emancipation Introduction Many American women would probably be surprised to learn that the current women's liberation movement in the United States is by no means the first public, nation-wide expression of female aspirations for total equality with men in the world. The concept of equality of the sexes was an integral and important part of the teachings of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Efforts to put this into practice were begun in the Soviet Union some fifty years ago, soon after the triumph of the October Revolution. Similar attempts have been made in other socialist countries including China, Cuba, and Albania. To be sure, there are important differences between the women's movement in the highly industrialized and affluent United States, and in underdeveloped, authoritarian, and ideologically militant Albania. The leaders of the Albanian Party of Labor (APL) denounce the "feminist," "illuminist," and "allegedly apolitical" women's liberation movements, "which are so fashionable in the capitalist world, and which have been so I fervently embraced by the modern Khrushchevian and Titoist revisionists."1 Unlike these, they see the women's movement in Albania as a struggle for the triumph of revolutionary ideology over the bourgeois, feudal, and patriarchal ideology. The Albanian leaders go a step further. They look upon the organized activity of women in their country as a model for the women of the Third World. According to Enver Hoxha, the Party's First Secretary: "The activity of the Union of Albanian Women [UAWj is a shining example for many women's organizations in newly-independent countries.,,2 In Albania the "struggle for the emancipation of woman" began even before the communists seized power in November, 1944. As early as February, 1942, while the Partisans were still organizing and building up their forces, Enver Hoxha, their leader, said: "The Albanian woman is oppressed by fascism, by bourgeois and feudal traditions and laws; she is more conscious than anyone else of our struggle [to gain power] for she sees in it her own salvation...."3 The Albanian Party leader saw the problem of the 1. General Beqir Balluku, former Albanian Minister of Defense, in his greetings to Kongrcsii 6te i 13GSH(Bashkimi i Grave te Shqip?ris6j (Tirana, 1967), p. 13. 2. Enver Hoxha, Mbi Problemin e Gruas, a volume of excerpts and speeches by Hoxha on the Albanian woman, 1942-1967 (Tirana, 1967), p. 119. The deliberate effort of Albanian women activ- ists to influence "Third World" women was manifest in the speech of Vito Kapo, President of UAW,at the International Women's Year World Conference, held in Mexico City, Mexico, in late June, 1975. The text of Kapo's speech was published in ZEri i Popullit [hereafter Zil'], daily organ of the Albanian Party of Labor, June 26, 1975. 3. Hoxha, p. 9. 110 emancipation of women as part and parcel of the revolution and the subsequent construction of socialism in Albania; indeed, as a necessary condition for the develop- ment of "genuine freedom and democracy" in the country. "Without full equality between man and woman," Hoxha has said, "there can be no truly free Albania."4 From the beginning of communist rule in Albania, the Party leadership has attached major importance to the problem of women, regarding it as an "exceptionally great social problem," and linking it with the very destiny of the Albanian people, socialism, and communism.5 The attitude of APL on this question was perhaps best expressed in a statement issued by the Party's Central Committee and the Albanian Council of Ministers on April 29, 1967: "The freedom of the people and of each individual, the progress of the country, and fulfillment of our aims cannot be conceived without the complete emancipation of women." To buttress their argument on women, and add an historical dimension to the question, the Albanians have appealed to the classics of communism, drawing on the authoritative pronouncements on women by Marx, Engels, and Lenin, as well as by Stalin and Mao. In fact, a brochure of some sixty pages entitled On Woman, containing citations on this subject from their writings, was published in Tirana in 1967. In an important speech devoted entirely to women, delivered in June, 1967, Hoxha said that the emancipation of women "is a great problem of life, [a problem] of the ... dialec- tic development of mankind."6 It is for this reason, he added, that Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin gave such serious attention to the liberation of women from exploiters, their emancipation from male domination, and the fullest development of their personality. He quoted Marx to the effect that the progress of any period in history can be measured by the degree of progress made by women in gaining freedom, particularly from male domination, for "the victories of human nature are best manifested in the relations between husband and The Albanian Communist Party's position on women, and its general line on the social and economic development of the country, won the support and loyalty of many Albanian women soon after the Party was organized in November, 1941. Some 6,000 of them reportedly took up arms and became a part of the 70,000-strong Partisan army during the War of National Liberation in the early 1940's. A number of them including Zonja qurre, Bule Naipi, Persefoni Kokedhima, Margarita Tutulani, Mrike Lokja, and others are honored in Albania today as martyrs to the cause of national liberation, socialist construction, and women's emancipation. Indeed, participation in the war marked the first step in the Albanian women's struggle for emancipation, and provided the initial momentum for the later stages of their struggle for equality with men. Fighting alongside the Partisans taught women not only to be independent and to develop initiative; most of all, it helped them to alter their psychological outlook, to revise their self-image and their image of the Albanian society, especially the role of women in it. As an Albanian writer put it in a short story about a woman Partisan: "With her father's old rifle ... she wanted to kill her past, to gain 4. ZiP, March 9, 1967. 5. On Some Aspects of the Problem of the Albanian Woman, original text in English (Tirana, 1967), p. 3. 6. Ibid., pp. 3-4. 7. Ibid., p. 30. 1 .
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