Xhuana Nikollaj was only 25 years old. She had left behind a failed marriage and was trying to build a new life, free from violence and freedom.
She decided to move from Shëngjin to Tirana and, unable to afford to live alone, joined her friends. She had completed her higher education and expected to find a dignified job and a peaceful life the next day.
Today, Xhuana is no longer alive. Her ex-husband, Eraldo Fizi, raped her in the rented apartment, hitting her on the body and head. In a state of despair and unable to escape the vicious circle she had entered against her will, she chose the most dramatic path: to end her life with fostoxin.
Xhuana was found in critical condition by her friend, who rushed her to the “Mother Teresa” University Hospital Center. But it was too late. The doctors made every effort, but they could not help Xhuana. She closed her eyes forever. In the letter she left behind, she apologized to her parents and said that she did not want to be hurt again by people who had hurt her. Forensic experts later confirmed the signs of violence. The ex-husband is on the run on charges of “domestic violence” and “causing suicide.”
But Xhuana's case is not the only one. Statistically, domestic violence is at alarming levels, and many girls and women have taken the extreme act of suicide to escape the beatings of their partners or husbands.
Bedrie Loka
Bedrie Loka was the mother of three children, a daughter and two sons. The youngest witnessed the violence that his father, Xhemal Loka, inflicted on his mother and even filmed it on his cell phone, a shocking testimony that was enough to convict Xhemal Loka. Bedrie Loka ended her life in their apartment in the village of Vadardhë, Durrës, on January 2, 2024.
Initially, it was said that the extreme act was the result of bullying on social media, but investigations revealed that her husband, a former immigrant with a drug conviction, was systematically raping her. The children confessed to the police that their father repeatedly raped their mother.
"Dad had raped his mother with his fists, had laid her on the ground, they had fought each other and his mother was completely blackened from her arms and other parts of her body," the couple's minor son confessed. The eldest daughter recounted the last conversation with her mother: "That night I was not calm, she told me: 'I will sew it up, mom, I will sew it up' and turned off the phone. When I went to the hospital, she told me with hope that he would survive, 'I have endured enough'." Xhemal Loka has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Sibela Abedini
Bullied on social media, unemployed and with a small child to take care of, Sibela Abedini chose to end her life by jumping from the height of a building in Kamzë. Altin Coku is being tried for the charge of "inciting suicide", who did not physically rape her, but psychologically, after the pressure caused by the publication of intimate photos pushed the 27-year-old to make this decision.
Alma Arraz
Her story is perhaps one of the most shocking. Due to psychological violence, Alma chose to jump into the Buna River with her three children. Four victims within one family. The tragedy occurred on May 3, 2024 and shocked Shkodra and public opinion. Erdgys Arrazi, Alma's husband and father of three children, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison for inducing suicide.
The cases are numerous, the human dramas are shocking. The losses are extraordinary. Girls and women who do not see light at the end of the tunnel due to physical and psychological violence surrender by ending their lives. The stories of these girls and women call for awareness: if society does not react today, tomorrow may be too late.
