The President of the Republic, Bajram Begaj, commemorated Musine Kokalari on the 107th anniversary of her birth.
“Musine Kokalari, the ‘Honor of the Nation’ – the first Albanian writer and a rare politician. Her creative spirit, critical thinking, European vision for change, heroic resistance to imprisonment and internment, and her extraordinary intellectual potential are an inspiration at all times,” the President expressed on social media.
Musine Kokalari was born on February 10, 1917, in Adana, Turkey.
In 1921, her family returned to Albania and settled in Gjirokastër, where Musine attended primary school. Nine years later, the Kokalari family moved to Tirana. In 1937, Musine completed high school at “Nëna Mbretëreshë” and later went to study at the University of Rome in Italy, which she successfully completed in 1941.
She published her first book, “Siç më thotë nënua plakë” (As my old mother tells me) in 1939.
It was in 1943 when Musine Kokalari, along with some other friends, formed the Social Democratic Party. A year later, through her efforts, the first issue of the newspaper “Zëri i Lirisë” (Voice of Freedom) was published. In 1944, she published her second book, “Rreth vatrës” (Around the hearth), while on November 12 of the same year, her brothers, Muntaz and Vesim Kokalari, were executed.
Four days later, Musine was arrested and detained for 17 days. In January 1945, her third book, “Sa u tunt jeta” (How life swayed), was published.
On January 23, 1946, she was arrested for the second time by the People’s Defense Forces and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment. In 1961, she was released from prison and interned in Rrëshen, where she retired on half pay. In 1981, she fell ill with cancer, which would take her life two years later.
Ten years later, in 1993, the President of the Republic posthumously awarded her the “Martyr of Democracy” medal.
“I do not appeal to anyone for my health, least of all to those who had the power to alleviate my sentence,” Musine wrote shortly before her death.
Considered an opponent of the communist regime, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison and later interned with 22 others in Rrëshen, where she died on August 13, 1983, from cancer.
