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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Asia Pacific World Kosovo war widows wage battle on tradition AFP - Friday, August 6 Send IM Story Print Kosovo war widows wage battle on tradition KRUSHA (AFP) - – Fahrije Hoti lost her husband in the 1999 Kosovo war but when that fight ended, a new one began against age-old taboos when she took up her dead husband's place working in the fields. "We were receiving emergency assistance at first but it was only enough for bread," she said. So she and many other widows decided to take charge and plough their fields as their husbands had all their lives. This switch from housework to farming was akin to revolution in this patriarchal rural milieu where fieldwork was the preserve of men and women were supposed to stay home, looking after children and managing the household. "We did not want to live off social assistance forever because we wanted to offer our children a chance," Hoti said. But the widows faced a dual challenge. Not only did they have to learn about cultivating the soil, they also had to confront prejudices in Kosovo Albanian society that brand women as anti-social if they take on a man's job and appear often in public. "They demonstrated an extraordinary instinct for survival. They broke the old codes in rural and patriarchal areas that treated women as a (domestic) labor force," political analyst Migjen Kelmendi said. Krusha's fertile soil is known for good agricultural yields and ideal for growing sweet peppers, known here as paprika, a key ingredient in regional cuisine such as the ubiquitous condiment, ajvar. More then 90 percent of the local population depends on its production. Settled in the far south of Kosovo, the village was heavily affected by the conflict between forces of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and separatist ethnic Albanian rebels. The war ended when NATO planes and guided missiles ousted Milosevic's troops and placed Kosovo under the UN's administration until 2008, when it proclaimed independence. But during the tortuous, three-month campaign, Serb forces frustrated by NATO's superior air power retaliated against Krusha and its inhabitants, herding men and boys into houses, then opening fire before setting the homes alight. In just a few hours 110 men and boys were killed, among them Hoti's husband Bashkim. The Krusha massacre was included in the the war crimes indictment against the former Yugoslav president Milosevic, who died in 2006 while on trial at the UN court in The Hague. But the indictment offered only partial satisfaction for Hoti, who found herself alone to look after her three-year-old daughter Sabina, three-month-old son Drilon and her elderly parents-in-law. The determined widows made their first stand in 2001 when Hoti led a group of 10 of them to take driving lessons for tractors. "Almost the whole village wondered publicly: what do they think they are doing? How dare they?" Hoti recalled. "We had a double burden. Not only did we have to get used to very hard work we had never done before, we also had to convince the village that the widows could not continue to live in isolation." As the driving force for change, Hoti soon set up a non-governmental organisation called "The Widows of Krusha". Within a few years it had 60 members, forming a kind of cooperative. "We broke a taboo," Pranvera Spahiu, Hoti's assistant in the NGO, added proudly. International donors have helped the group, providing training, hybrid seeds, natural pesticides and teaching conservation techniques. With the passing years, the widows' incomes got better and better. Some of them, like Hoti, have begun to repair their war-damaged houses while others have saved enough money to send their teenagers to the Kosovo capital Pristina for schooling. "It was extremely difficult to take over the role of my husband," said 45-year-old Advije Duraku, whose 19-year old son Ardian was admitted to Pristina university this year. "But now I'm happy, there is no greater happiness than to raise children who are fatherless and see them go to university," she beamed. The Krusha widows have even made a name across Kosovo as producers of what is billed as the only organic ajvar, the sweet pepper relish, free of chemicals and additives. Their brand, "Made by the Women of Krusha", is a popular favourite, for sale in many Kosovo food shops. The work keeps Hoti busy, constantly on the move between her fields, her modest office that fits only her desk and two cabinets, or delivering ajvar to clients in her beat-up Jeep. Despite the recognition, Hoti said 11 years of struggle has convinced her "there is no harder job then to do men's work." "It was very difficult to take the role of our husbands. But poverty is even worse," she said. 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