March 10, 2025 | Monday
QIKA will continue to stand, resist, and create change
By: Leonidë Molliqaj, Founder and Executive Director
In August 2020, together with a group of feminist activists, I founded QIKA – the Center for Information, Critique, and Action. The idea of QIKA began as a necessity to resist, challenge, and create something that had been missing for too long in Kosovo: a dedicated feminist platform that would inform, intervene, and inspire action.
At that time, gender inequality was not just an abstract concept; it was a lived reality for women and girls in Kosovo. Systemic discrimination, economic dependence, domestic violence, and political underrepresentation were deeply rooted in our institutions and social norms. We saw firsthand how these injustices were normalized, how public discourse failed to challenge them, and how feminist voices were often sidelined or ignored.
My extensive experience as an investigative journalist and activist has brought me closer to the realities women face, motivating me to seek a new alternative — one that not only ensures women’s inclusion in media production and public spaces generally but is also created by women and dedicated to them.
QIKA emerged as a response to these realities. We envisioned a space where feminist critique could thrive, where gender issues would no longer be dismissed as secondary, and where activism could move beyond symbolic actions and translate into real, tangible change.
However, the context of our foundation was far from ideal. At the time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was in crisis, which only deepened the pre-existing inequalities. Women buried the weight of the crisis, overburdened with unpaid care work, facing the increased rates of domestic violence, and experiencing severe economic hardships. The pandemic made it clear that gender equality was not a luxury, but a fundamental requirement for a just society.
Despite the many challenges we faced, we refused to hold back. Instead, we adapted and persisted. We held virtual meetings with activists, shifted the discussion to a variety of digital platforms, and continued to produce feminist content that portrayed the realities of oppression.
What started as an activist initiative soon grew into a structured and impactful organization. QIKA was not just a space for discussion, rather it became a force of resistance, a platform for change, and a network of feminist solidarity.
One of our key objectives was to intervene in public discourse. Gender issues were often discussed in isolation or dismissed as individual struggles. We wanted to shift the conversation, challenge mainstream narratives, and force institutions to take responsibility.
To achieve this, we created www.qika.org, Kosovo’s first media platform dedicated to feminism. Through news reporting, investigative journalism, research, translations, and critical opinion pieces, we provided a much-needed space for women’s voices and feminist perspectives.
We understood that providing information alone was not enough — action was necessary. That’s why activism became a core pillar of QIKA. Over the years, we have protested against femicide, domestic violence, menstrual poverty, workplace discrimination, and institutional neglect. We have organized symbolic actions, street interventions, and awareness campaigns that have directly confronted misogyny and sexism in public spaces.
More than four years later, QIKA stands as a leading feminist organization in Kosovo, with a strong network of activists, journalists, and researchers who work tirelessly to challenge gender-based injustices.
We have grown from an idea into a structured organization, but our mission is far from complete. While some progress has been made, the barriers that women face remain deeply rooted in our institutions, policies, and social reproduction.
That is why we do not settle for symbolic change. We demand real accountability, structural reforms, and transformative justice. Our work is not measured only by the number of reports we publish or the protests we organize, but by the impact we make, the policies we push forward, and the lives we help change.
QIKA has become more than just an organization, it is a feminist community in motion. A space where women and girls know they are not alone. A movement that will not be silenced.
It remains an initiative that resists against the oppression women experience in families, workplaces, streets, and institutions. Our effort is to practice and cultivate an inclusive feminism, one where women of all backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, classes, sexual orientations, and religions are treated equally and can live free from oppression and discrimination.
We will continue to fight for every girl denied education, for every woman experiencing violence, for every undervalued and underpaid worker, and for every activist who dares to dream of a better world.
QIKA will continue to stand, resist, and create change.
QIKA has benefited from the support of the European Union and aligns its work with EU guidelines, the EU Gender Action Plan III, and relevant EU directives on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Currently, in partnership with Kosovo 2.0, QIKA is implementing the “EU-funded project Informed Democracy: Promoting a Diverse and Sustainable Media Ecosystem”. As part of this project, QIKA is working on updating the “1≠1” open data platform with EU GAP III indicators, ensuring greater visibility of gender equality data in Kosovo. Additionally, QIKA will contribute to gender training workshops aimed at strengthening the capacity of journalists and researchers in integrating a gender perspective into media reporting.