Sex Assault Reports Spark Chain Reaction in Kosovo, Albania

A series of reactions on social networks, and protests against sexual harassment, assault, and abuse of women and girls have started in Albania and Kosovo following recent media reports of the sexual assault and abuse of the young.

Two public protests in Kosovo demanding, among other things, sex education classes in schools, have taken place in the capital, Pristina. Two days after human rights activists organised a protest in the city, high-school students held another protest on Wednesday.

The protests have been accompanied by actions on social media featuring women and girls mainly anonymously sharing personal histories of sexual harassment and assault in schools, at work, and on the street.

These confessions were responding to an Instagram story published by the Kosovo feminist media outlet Grazeta about a badly managed sexual harassment case at a school in Pristina.

"One day, we're going to talk about how normalized it was to slap a girl's butt in elementary school," one Twitter user posted. "The boys in my class would form a circle and put one girl inside and touch her everywhere. I get chills every time I remember this," another shared.

A male twitter user posted that he would inappropriately touch girls at his school whenever the students lined up to enter class.

Other women and girls shared similar experiences. "A PE teacher at my friend's school who is known to everyone for harassing girls makes inappropriate comments about their appearance and insists on them wearing tight uniforms," one of the many shared stories of sexual harassment by teachers reads.

Eurisa Rukovci, a psychologist and founder of Grazeta, told BIRN that many women are finding social media a safe place to confess.

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