culture

Conversation with writer Fatbardha Saraçi

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During the study visit to the places of memory in Shkodra, IDMC also developed the activity "Literature as a Place of Memory", an initiative of IDMC since 2015.

In an active conversation with students and teachers, the writer Fatbardha Saraçi (Mulleti), interned at the age of 5 by the communist regime, told them details from the publication "Women's Calvary in the Communist Prison", a summary of the most terrifying experiences of women in the infamous Tepelena’s camp based on interviews, archival data and survivors' testimonies.

In the absence of film documents that can prove the existence of the Tepelena camp or memorials, memorial plaques or museums that should have commemorated the victims of communism in other places of memory in Albania, literature becomes evidence and the only place of memory that was enables young people to get acquainted with the communist past.

The story of the persecution of Fatbardha Saraçi Mulleti

(excerpt from Observatory on Memories)

She was born on November 8, 1939 in Tirana. Her father, Haki Mulleti, was an honest and patriotic servant inherited and nurtured with noble feelings. At the age of 5 she experienced Slavo-Communist persecution.

Her father was imprisoned in 1945, while the family was interned in Kavaja, where she finished the 7-year school in 1952. He graduated from the "28 November" high school in 1957 in Shkodra. Later she works as a teacher in the villages of Lezha: Kallmet, Manati, Blinisht and Dajç of Zadrima. She continued his higher studies without leaving work and graduated from the Pedagogical Institute (2 years) in Tirana, branch Biology-Geography-Chemistry in 1963. While in 1970 he graduated from the University of Tirana in the branch Chemistry-Biology.

In 1975 she was expelled from education because of his "biography" and because she refused to cooperate with the State Security. Later she worked as at the Wood Factory in Shkodra. The short married life (her husband, Kole Saraci, died in 1990 after 8 years of marriage) gave her a son, Peter. She has worked and published articles in defense of her accomplices, Albanian mothers and sisters.

  • At the age of 5 she experienced Slavo-Communist persecution
  • In 1945 the family of Fatbardha Saraci Mulleti was interned in Kavaja
  • In 1970 she graduated from the University of Tirana in Chemistry-Biology
  • In 1975 she left school due to her biography and non-cooperation with State Security