23 Oct 14

The University of Prishtina has said it will review its textbooks following an outcry over a Faculty of Law work that describes women rape victims as 'usually immoral'.
Nektar Zogjani
BIRN
Pristina

NGOs in Kosovo are demanding the recall of a university textbook that makes light of women victims of sexual violence.

Passages from the offending book, entitled “Kriminalistika” [“Criminology”], by retired Professor Vesel Latifi, refer to rape victims as “females who are easily fooled, careless, thoughtless, and immoral”.

Igballe Rogova, director of the Kosovo Women’s Network, said such characterizations were shocking and harmful to rape victims.

"It is especially regrettable for a society that has experienced war and rape [as a weapon of war] to have such a university book. I was shocked when I saw it," she said.

Anthropology professor Nita Luci called on the university to do away with this textbook - and with others that are behind the times.

"There are similar cases of how homosexuality and cohabitation of partners before marriage are described [in textbooks]," she said.

The uproar over the texbooks comes as pressure grows for reform at the scandal-plagued university.

In February the Rector of the University, Ibrahim Gashi, resigned following a wave of protests triggered by his own questionable scholarship, as well as other scandals.

Dissatisfaction has been brewing for years with declining academic standards at the university, often known by its acronym, UP.

Adem Beha, an advisor to acting rector Ramadan Zejnullahu, said many university textbooks needed to be rewritten.

"Most of them are outdated and this directly damages the image of UP. We plan to address this matter through the Prishtina University publishing council,” Beha pledged.