Majlinda Bregu: Why the time has come for a woman to be on Albanian banknotes
2025-03-04 20:11:45
TiranaPost
In the Women's March, Majlinda Bregu has another proposal, besides the economic ones. A woman on Albanian banknotes. For Majlinda, it should be Musine Kokalari. Why - she explains in this status.
Whether Sojnik or Fisnik, to this day, no woman 👩🦳 carries value on an Albanian banknote.
The current series of banknotes features portraits of well-known figures, all men, such as Naim Frashëri (200 lekë), Ismail Qemali (500 lekë), Pjetër Bogdani (1000 lekë), Illyrian King Gent (2000 lekë), Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu (5000 lekë) and Asdreni (10000 lekë).
If it weren't for a valuable publication by Elsa Zhulal, "Woman in the National Coin", I would not have known that just one year after the first issue of the 'National Bank of Albania' in 1927, a "female" figure, Dea, was issued on a silver coin worth 1 franc.
Then 100 francs on the banknote, until 1940, 500 francs in 1945, and we continue with women among wheat and hydroelectric power plants on the 3 lek and 25 lek banknotes of the years of communist equality.
Today, in 2025, the only monetary value with a female figure on it is the 100 lekë coin, which portrays Queen Teuta who made Illyria one of the most important states in the Mediterranean.
"It's important for a woman to have money, it doesn't matter who is stamped on it," someone might rightly say.
But since we're at the Women's March, I'm also throwing this idea out there.
Banknotes, currency, are not simply a medium of exchange, they are a symbol of our national identity, history and values. When we choose who will appear on banknotes, we choose whose contributions we recognize, what stories we want to tell and what achievements we value, and I believe there are many women who have played crucial roles in shaping our economy, society and history, whose contributions deserve to be issued.
Money💶 is power, and girls and women need to talk and decide not only how it is easily earned and equally easily spent, but also how it is earned, saved, invested, and managed in financial markets.
In the time of Çalaman values, I am for a Musine Kokalari🌷, the first female writer in modern Albanian literature, the first female dissident in our entire infamous communist empire, both Sojnik and Fisnik, who challenged the impossible with her stubbornness to be free!
