Daily Times

Looking back to her childhood in conflict-wracked Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani remembers listening quietly as dozens of men gathered in her father’s living room to discuss the political future of the breakaway Serbian province.

Two decades later, the 38-year-old is determined to be the one leading the meetings as she bids to become Kosovo’s first female Prime Minister in October 6 elections.

It would be a radical change in a patriarchal society where men reign supreme in politics, business and often in the home.

But Osmani says her gender is an asset.

“I can do it precisely because I am a woman,” she told AFP from the headquarters of her party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).

The curly-haired law professor-turned-MP is hoping to ride a wave of disappointment in the men who have mired the young democracy in corruption and poverty since its 2008 independence. The former province is still led by the ethnic-Albanian guerillas who fought Serbia during the 1998-99 war and for whom gender equality is not a priority.

While a quota ensures women’s representation in parliament, leadership positions overwhelmingly remain the playground of men. Men run all of Kosovo’s 38 municipalities, while the previous 21-member cabinet boasted a single female minister.

President Hashim Thaci also has only one woman in his cadre of political advisors.

While parliament did appoint a female president, Atifete Jahjaga, in 2011, the people have never elected a woman to lead the government.

‘Nasty’ politics

Osmani wants to upend those norms with the backing of one of Kosovo’s largest and oldest parties, whose founder, Ibrahim Rugova, is considered the “father of the nation”.

Analysts say she has a strong chance of taking home a large share of votes on election day.

Yet Kosovo’s fractured political scene means no party is likely to win an absolute majority, leaving Osmani to forge a coalition to oust the establishment PDK, in power since 2007.

After studying international law in the US and working as a professor, Osmani became a lawmaker in 2011, coming face to face with what she describes as Kosovo’s “nasty” political scene.The unpleasant nature of the ‘circus’ was on display when two male MPs sparred in a recent TV debate.

After one politician made disparaging comments about the other’s wife, his opponent retorted by calling him the female version of his name, saying “you look a bit like a woman”.After the programme, the men reportedly came to blows.Osmani says she encounters sexism out campaigning, but interprets attacks on her gender as a sign of “insecurity”.”My political opponents are afraid of the big change we will bring on October 6,” she told supporters at a recent campaign event.