“Policy for equality, not wages for reproduction” is the banner with which a symbolic action was organized in front of the Kosovo Assembly by the Center for Information, Criticism and Action (QIKA) together with the Kosovo Center for Gender Studies (QKSGJ) and the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN).
The protesters blew smoke as a symbol of dissatisfaction with political parties, because according to them “they are seeing women as a means of reproduction”.
Erletë Shala from the Kosovo Women’s Network said that political parties are promising wages and allowances for mothers in the campaign, but not as support for women.
According to her, this is being used as a strategy to make reproduction a duty.
“Political parties are seeing women as a means of reproduction. Their pre-election discourse is a campaign for control over our bodies. One party promises 500 euros, another 5,000, others, maternity pay and allowances, but not as support for women, but as a mechanism to keep them confined to caregiving roles, to push them towards childbirth in the name of “national security” and “increasing the birth rate”. All of this is a strategy to strengthen control over women’s bodies, to make reproduction a duty and not a choice. We are here today to declare our resistance. We reject conservative policies that, under the guise of financial promises, are in fact a frontal attack on our bodily autonomy. We will not accept any campaign that seeks to increase birth rates in exchange for our freedom. We will not allow our reproductive rights to be trampled on for populist and nationalist agendas,” Shala said.
