The Strongest Link
An Oral History of Wartime Rape Survivors in Kosovo
Anna Di Lellio author Garentina Kraja author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:18th Aug '25
Should be back in stock very soon
From February 1998 until June 1999, a war between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army ravaged Kosovo. The counterinsurgency quickly turned into a state-led campaign of ethnic cleansing that resulted in the killing, deportation, and rape of thousands of Albanian civilians. While it is estimated that over 20,000 women were victims of sexual violence during the war, for nearly two decades after its end, few survivors have come forward to publicly discuss what they endured. In The Strongest Link, Anna Di Lellio and Garentina Kraja aim to break that silence by presenting an oral history of women who survived weaponized rape during the Kosovo War. In their own voices, twenty women describe the war's terror, as well as the nightmares that still haunt them today. Through these narratives, readers are given a glimpse into what it's like to be a woman whose life has been altered and undone by a violent regime, war, and patriarchal rules. We see how these women suffered, but also how they exhibited immense bravery and an unflagging dedication to their families and communities. Di Lellio and Kraja contextualize these narratives within a history of state repression, ethnic cleansing, and lack of justice. By weaving these women's stories together and placing them within a chronological storyline, these stories can be read as one might listen to a choir: Each woman's unique voice and story can be heard, but their power lies in a shared song, a story of courage and strength.
In this global feminist continuum, the voices of Kosovo's women, as collected by Di Lellio and Kraja, mark a crucial juncture: the stories they recorded were told timely. This time the world is ready to listen. By enabling the âtruthâ of victims and survivors to resonate through legal discourse, in a world still shaped by the visible and invisible rules of patriarchy, this book achieves something monumental. * Nevenka Tromp, University of Amsterdam *
Rather than referring to the silence over wartime rape survivors, Anna Di Lellio and Garentina Kraja underline in this raw and empathetic oral history that we might better speak of the silencing of those whose lives have been ruptured by sexual violence in the midst of war-in Kosovo and the many other places where nationalism and patriarchy have interacted to produce similar results. ..The book's interwoven testimonies, organized into what Alessandro Portelli (2004) called a choral narration in his own oral history of mass violence and its aftermath, honor the fullness of the women's lives by treating their earlier lives in rural or urbanizing Kosovo, and the silencing they have experienced since the war's end.. * Catherine Baker, History: Reviews of New Books *
The Strongest Link: An Oral History of Wartime Rape Survivors in Kosovo by Anna Di Lellio and Garentina Kraja is one of the most important books of 2025-2026-not only regarding the history of wartime sexual violence but also in terms of our access to survivors of wartime rape-people with a rich past and a troubled future caused by their traumatic experiences. ..In the introduction, Di Lellio and Kraja write that their aim with this book is to give women their voice back and bring them out of silence-and they have succeeded in doing so in a truly impressive way. * Franziska Zaugg, Women's History Review *
ISBN: 9780197699294
Dimensions: 236mm x 169mm x 24mm
Weight: 558g
280 pages