Dr Robert Carr, a researcher at the Griffith University, Australia, author of Generosity and Refugees: The Kosovars in Exile, wrote about the screening of the film “Thinking of You” in Sydney, a documentary which focuses on the issue of sexual violence committed during wartime in Kosovo. Thinking of You is being screened around the world and the artist at the centre of the film, Alketa Mripa-Xhafa, producers Anna Di Lellio (a sociologist and former UN consultant in Kosovo) and Fitim Shala, and (now former) Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga joined together after the President founded the National Council for the Survivors of Sexual Violence During the War in 2014. Carr reported that President Jahjaga was joined in Sydney by Kosovo’s Ambassador to Australia Sabri Kicmari as part of a panel to discuss the historical, moral and political challenges facing Kosovo to redress the widespread sexual violence inflicted against women during the 1990s by Serbian and Serbian-led forces.
“Thinking of You” documents the donation of 5000 dresses by women (and some men) across Kosovo. The dresses then feature in a major artistic installation in Pristina’s football stadium. Each dress “has a personal story to tell”, artistic director Mripa-Xhafa states during the film.
Introducing the film, Kicmari told attendees “The highest form of inhuman violence was the abuse of women [during the war].” Kicmari noted President Jahjaga was the first female head of state in south Europe, and youngest ever head of state in the world. “Without a female president, it may have been very difficult to begin this conversation”, Kicmari says.
President Jahjaga told attendees “Sexual violence is the most devastating weapon of war.” A major challenge to building the future when President Jahjaga took office, she stated, was that “most of the perpetrators remained free.” Meanwhile, she added, the victims remained “Silenced by our society, and by our system”. As President, “I decided to act. So in March 2014, I established the National Council for Survivors of Sexual Violence.”
