Only six days have passed since Kosovar pathologist Dr. Nazim Qehaja caused a scandal by openly justifying sexual violence, which he said occurs because a girl\/woman dresses in a way that is \u201cimmoral and anti-national\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even after\u00a0numerous reactions appeared on social media by\u00a0activists for\u00a0human rights, women\u2019s rights,\u00a0girls\u2019\u00a0rights, and LGBT persons\u2019 rights, Dr.\u00a0Qehaja\u00a0continued\u00a0defending\u00a0his view\u00a0that sexual violence is justified\u00a0in some cases\u00a0and that rapists should not be punished nor held accountable before\u00a0the\u00a0law.<\/p>\n
Referring to his\u00a0profession\u00a0as\u00a0a doctor, he said that \u201cnot only humanly but also professionally and\u00a0psycho-medically, rapists of such women, extremely provocative in public, should not be held accountable\u201d.\u00a0<\/em>Further, to justify this statement, a few days later he added\u00a0<\/em>that only persons with \u201cmental disorders\u201d commit rape.<\/p>\n Moreover, following activists\u2019 reactions, he said that a nation is in danger \u201cwhen\u00a0whores, fornicators, homosexuals\u00a0and others with similar psychosomatic disorders speak for\u00a0morality<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n Through this letter, we, the undersigned, remind Dr. Qehaja that if sexual assault\u00a0were\u00a0specific\u00a0to\u00a0persons with mental disorders, then our state, through laws in harmony with those of democratic developed countries, would not define sexual assault as a criminal offense, punishable with 2-10 years in prison, but as a mental health disorder. Therefore, this view\u00a0is ungrounded and\u00a0contrary to the law.<\/p>\n Justifying such criminal acts,\u00a0including by\u00a0blaming\u00a0the\u00a0victim for\u00a0\u201cprovocative\u201d clothing, is a\u00a0form of\u00a0public incitement to hatred, which is punishable by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo\u00a0by\u00a0fine or imprisonment\u00a0of\u00a0up to five years.<\/p>\n We also remind Dr.Qehaja who made a homophobic statement, that international medical professionals since 1990, through the World Health Organization, confirmed that homosexuality is not classified as a disease, much less a psychosomatic disease, as he defined it.<\/p>\n For lack of basic knowledge and incitement to hatred, in a\u00a0democratic country, a person like Nazim\u00a0Qehaja\u00a0would have his diploma revoked and be banned from practicing\u00a0duties as a\u00a0medical\u00a0doctor.<\/p>\n Recalling that medical profession in principle has equal and dignified treatment of all without distinction, we demand that the Doctors Committee publicly distance itself from the hate speech that Dr.\u00a0\u00a0Qehaja has used against women, girls and LGBT\u00a0persons;\u00a0and\u00a0that they\u00a0condemn\u00a0his language and his lack of medical professionalism.<\/p>\n The Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo guarantees freedom and security for every citizen, regardless of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, nation, race or religion. According to the law, any person inciting hatred and disunity must receive\u00a0the\u00a0deserved punishment. Therefore, we also demand\u00a0that\u00a0the State Prosecutor\u2019s Office\u00a0urgently take action against Dr. Qehaja.<\/p>\n Signed by:<\/strong><\/p>\n DokuFest<\/em><\/p>\n Lumbardhi Foundation<\/em><\/p>\n Kosovo Civil Society Foundation \u2013 KCSF<\/em><\/p>\n Cultural Heritage without Borders Kosovo Foundation \u2013 CHwB <\/em><\/p>\n Community Development Fund \u2013 CDF<\/em><\/p>\n INTEGRA<\/em><\/p>\n Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development \u2013 KIPRED <\/em><\/p>\n Kosovar Youth Council \u2013 KYC<\/em><\/p>\n Equal Rights for All Coalition \u2013 ERAC<\/em><\/p>\n GAP Institute<\/p>\n Youth Initiative for Human Rights \u2013 YIHR<\/em><\/p>\n Organization for Increasing Quality of Education \u2013 ORCA<\/em><\/p>\n NGO Consumer <\/em><\/p>\n Centre for Equality and Liberty of the LGBT Community \u2013 CEL<\/em><\/p>\n Center for Social Group Development \u2013 CSGD Kosova<\/em><\/p>\n Art and Community Center \u2013 Artpolis <\/em><\/p>\n Advocacy Training and Resource Center \u2013 ATRC<\/em><\/p>\n European Center for Minority Issues \u2013 ECMI Kosovo<\/em><\/p>\n Center for Legal Aid and Regional Development \u2013 CLARD <\/em><\/p>\n Kosovar Gender Studies Center \u2013 KGSC<\/em><\/p>\n Kosovo Women\u2019s Network \u2013 KWN<\/em><\/p>\n Kosovar Stability Initiative- IKS<\/p>\n Syri i Vizionit<\/em><\/p>\n Center for Counseling, Social Services and Research- SIT<\/p>\n Shk\u00eblzen Maliqi<\/em><\/p>\n Lawyers Association \u2013 Norma<\/em><\/p>\n Numismatic Association \u2013 Demastion <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Only six days have passed since Kosovar pathologist Dr. Nazim Qehaja caused a scandal by openly justifying sexual violence, which he said occurs because a girl\/woman dresses in a way that is \u201cimmoral and anti-national\u201d. Even after\u00a0numerous reactions appeared on social media by\u00a0activists for\u00a0human rights, women\u2019s rights,\u00a0girls\u2019\u00a0rights, and LGBT persons\u2019 rights, Dr.\u00a0Qehaja\u00a0continued\u00a0defending\u00a0his view\u00a0that sexual violence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3341136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3341136"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3341284,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341136\/revisions\/3341284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3341136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3341136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3341136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}