"Are the men of the house here?"

Like157
Post
Image
A picture of the Shatervan in Prizren, a very popular landmark of my country Kosovo

I grew up in Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo, but my birthplace is Prizren, a very well known city of Kosovo-known for the history every inch of the land has. I have a big family, both on my mom's and on my dad's side. Both of my parents encourage me to do what I love and feel happy about myself, and my dad tells me I am not a piece of property to anyone. Because my dad works as a freelancer in IT, my mom usually has to run all the errands of the house while also working as a Registered Nurse. My 80-year-old grandma lives with my aunt, who works as a physicist.I have two uncles and one aunt who live outside of the state. So my mom and my aunt take care of everything that needs to be done so my grandma can be comfortable (Keeping in mind that my grandma has gallstones, heart disease and osteoporosis).

One day we had problems with our electricity and my mom had to call the electrical company. In the middle of the night, two electricians called and told us to meet them at our neighborhood's electrical substation. Well, they gave my mom a call when they arrived and my mom and I went up to them to guide them to our house. When they took a look at the plug that had caught on fire and they noticed it had been sealed with electrical tape they asked my mom if her husband a.k.a. my dad had done that and my mom said 'yes'. Then they continued to ask my mom and aunt questions like "Did you husbands also paint these walls? (my mom and I had just painted the walls grey)" or "I'm guessing your husbands are at work" etc.

That really bothered me. This type of stuff had happened to me before. One time one of my teachers asked for help carrying some lab stuff and me and some friends put our hands up and she said "Any boys?". The biggest part of our population lives under the idea that only a man can lift things up or only a man can achieve so much. If you don't find a man before the age of 25-27 people will start to judge you. If you don't have a man beside you are considered "weak" or "not ready" which is just stupid. I think that women get so much done without help. I mean the things Albanian and Kosovan women do on a daily basis without help, plus the weight of pleasing others is down-right amazing.

Hi, I'm an Albanian teen and this is how I live my life. How sexism is a part of the everyday life and nobody notices.

Stories
Kosovo (SCR1244)