Performing anger in Kosovo: Women's claim to citizenship

Abstract

This article analyzes post-war feminist contention in Kosovo. The analysis distinguishes between two stages of feminist contention: post-war and post-independence by drawing comparisons in the methods feminist activists have used. The main emerging difference is the use of silence as a form of contention in the post-war context, and the public and predominantly artistic forms of contention of post-independence activism. I claim that by making their contention in the public sphere and actively challenging the status quo, contemporary feminists in Kosovo have sought to claim citizenship. While post-war activism was contentious it still maintained gender in the private realm whereas contemporary activism brings gender into the public sphere through acts of citizenship such as slam poems, marches, and art installations. These new methods of contention have made it possible to invent new spaces of contention and new ways of being for feminists in Kosovo which are crucial to claims of citizenship.