08.03.2025

On March 8, the streets of Prishtina echoed with rage and solidarity during the annual “We March, We Don’t Celebrate!” protest, organized by the We March, We Don’t Celebrate! Collective.

This year, we marched for the women who are no longer with us, for those silenced and abandoned to violence by a failing system, for all those who refuse to surrender. Under the slogan “We March for One Another,” hundreds of activists and citizens took to the streets of Prishtina to demand justice and equality for women and girls in Kosovo.

In a country where 2,959 cases of domestic violence were reported only during 2024, where women are murdered by their husbands—even within institutions meant to protect them—there is no reason to celebrate.

This year, we marched for Erona Çokli, who was murdered inside the Center for Social Work in Ferizaj; for Gjyljeta Ukelli, killed by her husband in Peja; for M.Zh., murdered in Graçanica; and for Sherife Tahiri, who survived despite being shot five times by her husband. These women are no longer among us because the state failed to protect them, because the judicial system continues to pardon abusers, and because society still treats violence as a private matter.

The March 8 protest was a call for justice! A direct challenge to institutions that fail to protect women, an open revolt against normalized violence, and a refusal to stay silent. We marched against anti-gender movements seeking to dismantle women’s rights, against the patriarchal system that insists on controlling women’s bodies and lives.

We marched for one another! For a Kosovo where women do not fear for their lives in their own homes, where their voices are heard and respected, where violence does not go unpunished. Until that day comes, we will keep marching—because there is no equality without resistance!