On International Women’s Day, as follows, it is a retrospective article dedicated to all those “Cucave” (women`s) of the Highlands who were killed by the criminal hand of regressive forces and backward mentalities in the first years of the country’s liberation.
In memory with honor and deep respect for the “Cuca” of the mountains, the unforgettable women, the heroines: Dile Pjeter Marku, Marta e Prenda Tarazhi, Shkurte Cara, Mrika Loke!
The drama “Cuca e maleve” by Loni Pape, as well as other performances of the “Popular Theater”, is now part of the golden column of our Albanian dramaturgy. It is the first Albanian drama that relies on retrospective. Because it is a drama that presents a real event, or more precisely two or three sad real events, macabre and dark parts of our history in the first years after liberation.
It almost always happens like this, when real events are turned into a film or theater, they are destined to remain in the golden archive of the performing arts, for the themes they carry, the clash, the debate, the contradictions up to those events that end in tragedy, as is the case for which we will try to describe as below, but completely stripped of the ideologies of the time, be it communist or opponents of the system that had begun to be installed immediately after the first years of the country’s liberation.
PROLOGUE
So, this article has the purpose of more than a dedication, a memory to the heroines of the Highlands who are raised on a pedestal, while for their killers it is a memory of shame! The killers starting from their macabre act, whoever they were, remain of the ordinary medieval rank, a shame indelible even by the passage of time.
Despite the “Kanuni”, religion and patriarchal tradition, in many cases throughout history, women have torn the chains of slavery and fought for their rights, even fight together with men to protect the country, freedom, Motherland. If we browse the national history from the time of the Illyrians until our time, we learn that the role of women in the Albanian world has been very important in all areas of life. The first Illyrian queen was Teuta.
Albanian women have played an important role in the Byzantine period and in the time of the Albanian principalities. This is how we can mark its participation and role in the war against the Turkish rule at the time of Skanderbeg. During the centuries of Turkish captivity in the Albanian lands, the names of warriors have been prominent, some of which already belong to the oral tradition, such as Nora of Kelmendi, Nora Kola, Mara of Tërbaqi, etc.
The girls of Kurbin during the time of Gjergj Kastrioti are known for their bravery. Likewise, the women of the province of Suli, the Arvanites suljots, led by the brave woman Bubulina Laskaria, have also shown a collective bravery.
Shanisha Tepeleni, or Hankoja, Ali Pasha’s mother, was also a woman with a masculine character, vengeful and combative. In the Albanian intellectual world of the time of the National Renaissance, the Romanian princess of Albanian origin, Elena Gjika (Dora D’ Istria), is also known. In the fight for the liberation of Albania, Tringa Smajli was also known, then Hajrije Garria, the sister of Halil and Musta, who punishes her husband and son for treason.
Marigo Posio is known as the woman who overnight embroidered the eagle on the national flag, with which Ismail Qemali proclaimed the Independence of Albania.
An important role is played by the contribution of Albanian women in the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War. Even in the period after the war in Albania, Albanian women were included in all aspects of Albania’s development and took an active part in all processes of building the country, in education and general national emancipation.
After the Second World War in Albania, but also in Kosovo and in other Albanian countries, the emancipation and education of women began, in almost all areas of organized social life, educational, but also social and political. Women’s rights were sanctioned by the constitution and the communist system, where a series of measures were taken to free her from the age-old shackles of patriarchy, religion and reaction.
“MAIDEN OF THE MOUNTAINS” THEATER 
Now let’s go back to the events, the macabre murders of the children of Mirdita, Dile Pjeter Marku, Marta and Prenda Tarazhi that the famous playwright Loni Papa included in a drama which in itself reflects (although with the ideology of the time of the communist system), the fight for the education and emancipation of women and Albanian society!
The events take place in one of the villages of the North of Albania, in 1949. Cuca was a young girl, who was not baptized by the village priest, because her father, Gjini, refused to raise the penance stone after being accused of a theft, an action which he did not admit that he had committed.
Since the baby remained nameless, the whole village called her “Cuca”. In the drama, “Cuca” is a defender of youth and women’s rights. She wants to help the women and girls of the village to be educated and understand their rights, such as education, employment, gender equality and not to remain oppressed under the weight of customs and mentalities inherited from the past.
Cuca is the only girl in the village who broke her engagement from the cradle (done according to Kanun`s laws). She has set up courses against illiteracy in her home, to teach women and girls to read and write. Facing prejudices with dignity, Cuca has managed to win the hearts of most highlanders. The activities and influence of Cuca in the village are seen as a challenge by the “Mountain Committee”.
With the claim that Cuca broke the customs and shamed the village, the supporters of the Kanun tried to manipulate the opinion of a part of the villagers against Cuca, but without succeeding. Under these circumstances, when they realize that the rebellious girl is “getting smarter and getting over the men”, the “Mountain Committee” orders her murder.
One dark night, while Cuca is alone at home with her blind mother, four men treacherously break in, force her out of the house and kill her.
Who really were “Mountains Commitee”?
The Mountain Committee was in fact a group of people, exploiting and misinterpreting the laws of the Kanun, primitive, ignorant and fanatical people, ordinary murderers for their personal interests, unrelated to development and democracy. Many of them were collaborators, servants and hordes of the Nazi fascist invaders.
Unlike what is being propagated today, by the corrupt political class after the 1990s, about these people as fighters against communism for democracy. Those people did not even know how to write their own names, they were completely different with the shining figures as torchbearers of democracy and development!!!
HISTORY
Dile Pjeter Marku, “Dilica” was a “brave hearted-sokoleshe” of Kashnjet or as the whole of Albania would later know her under the name “Cuca e Maleve”, with her immortal work she would naturally enter into song, drama, rhapsody, from where she got the theme from playwright, the now deceased Loni Papa.
Mirdita, beautiful name of a province with high mountains, clothed in the green cloak of mountains. At the foot of these mountains and hills, on the slopes of the hills, lies the village of Fregen. Nature gave rare beauty to Fregen and all of Mirdita, but above all brave people, who lived where it was difficult to live.
Here, in this house of Fregen, in this poor family that has suffered all its life for bread, on May 30, 1931, Cuca e Maleve, Dile Pjetër Marku, was born. Not a rifle was heard that day. Custom wanted the cry to be heard only when boys were born, since Dilica would grow up a man. She was not yet six months old when his father, Pjeter, died, and he was left an orphan!
His mother, Gjela, was blind, while his brother, Prenga, was still a child to bear the family’s heavy burdens. In these difficult circumstances, Dilica’s entire childhood would pass in complete misery and darkness.
Like all the girls of Kashnjet and all of Mirdita, she grew up without education. Even the few schools Mirdita had at that time were in the hands of the clergy.
Dilica would grow up under the pressure of the savage laws of the Kanun and under the influence of old backwoods customs. Since she was in the cradle, 7 months old, precisely on the basis of that Kanun, she was engaged away from Fregen. The childhood of Dilica would pass to Mirdita burdened with the centuries-old burden of hunger, with the unhealed wound of fratricide, with the black shadow of the churches and the palaces of bloodthirsty captains.
Those were the times, when the highlanders traveled for days to buy a handful of corn and a little bit of salt. While grazing the cattle on the slopes of the mountains, Dila heard for the first time that the partisan forces were put in charge of the War for national and social liberation.
The frequent meetings with the freedom fighters began to awaken in her consciousness the feeling of a new life, completely different from the one she had gone through.
She watched as the mountain women and girls were fighting side by side with their husbands and brothers to defeat the occupiers and traitors of the country. When they learned the news about the liberation of Albania, both Dila and mother Gjela did not know how to express their joy.
In the first years of liberation, we will find Dila among her friends, at the forefront of the fight against backward customs in the Kashnjet Mountains. Very soon she becomes an ardent propagandist of the Party’s line. Her name starts to be heard all over Mirdita.
The frequent contacts with well-known cadres of the Party such as Bardhok Biba and Ndrec Ndue Gjoka elevate and train Dila even more as a warrior of the future.
Despite the pressures of the opposing forces, Dila would go where the voice of the Party called her, in the youth meetings, in the courses of the fight against illiteracy, in the various actions where she fought and worked to build a new life.
It was the summer of 1948. In the village of Kalur, a meeting was held to volunteer for the construction of the Tirana-Durra railway.
Dile Pjetër Marku gets up first to register as a volunteer. Where sweat was poured for the construction of the railway, Dila faced even more difficulties in life. The enemies continued without interruption their activity to bend and kneel this girl of the Highlands.
The words that came out up and down from the reaction that she was a “promiscuous girl”, that “there were mountains and gravely violated the laws of the Kanun”, although they weighed heavily on her soul, she was able to cope with them together with the help of her friends who always they stood by her, bravely.
Hold on, – Bardhok Biba kept telling her. You are the falcon of the Party. Dila had already found her way. She was spiritually prepared to face any sacrifice, even bloodshed. It is the time when the reaction moves to its last convulsions by committing acts of sabotage, murder and heinous crimes.
Enraged gangs of criminals sought to exterminate the first violets in spring at any cost. It was these gangs that on August 7, 1949, killed the Political Secretary of the Party Committee of the Mirdita District, the People’s Hero Bardhok Biba.
The murder of the communist hero deeply shook the hearts of the Mirditors, it also shook the heart of 18-year-old Dila.
“The criminals killed Ndrec Ndue Gjoka, they killed Marta and Prena, they killed Mrika, they killed you Bardhok. Your memory gives us strength, gives us wings”.
Precisely at these moments, Dile Pjetër Marku goes to volunteer for the second time on the railway. Now Dila of Kashnjeti, ignoring the pressures and blackmails, would boldly say her word openly, wherever and whenever, for the rights of women at work, society and family.
Dilica’s name had become a hateful name for the reaction. The so-called Committee of the Mountains decided to take revenge at any cost.
The night of November 14, 1950 was rainy. The criminals, together with the village priest Don Zef Oroshi, had drawn up the plan to kill Cuca e Maleve.
The scene was gripping.
– Why did you go to the railway? You are spoiling our women! What do you need the Party?
The criminals tied up the young girl. The old blind mother, left alone, hears rifle shots in the night. Here, in this place, by the Fregen stream, Dila Pjetër Marku, who would go down in history under the name Cuca e Maleve, was killed by criminals to remain immortal.
The 19-year-old “Sokolesha” of Kashnjet, the ardent youth activist, the tireless fighter for the light of progress, stands today on the pedestal of bravery.
The Presidium of the People’s Assembly of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania has decorated Dila Pjetër Marku with the high title “Heroine of the People”.
Cuca e Maleve, the eagle of the mountains, has remained with its immortal work a symbol of heroism and inspiration for all generations.
Marta and Prenda Tarazhi
It’s Sunday, April 25, 1948. Precisely in Tarazh in Mirdita, one of the most serious and heinous crimes, especially against a woman, took place in Albania. During the governing systems of our country, no matter how much this history is exploited, used, interpreted for certain purposes, whether they were communist at the time when it happened, but even today such acts are glorified as anti-communist, the conclusion of this sad story remains unchanged:
“Barbaric murder of a woman. Terrorist act, ordinary of the lowest degree”!
One 23 and the other only 20 years old. Both together led the life of a middle-aged woman, 43 years old. Tied with a rope, these two young women, Marta, 23 years old, and Prenda Tarazhi, 20 years old, were executed after torture, causing astonishment, and then they became heroines for the communist system, as well as an example for that system that the people of the Committee of Maleve were criminals.
Among dozens of writings, books of the time written about the murder of two girls from Mirdita, there is a complete testimony of the researcher Lucie Doçi.
It is precisely this lady who, with the evidence collected, naturally under the influence of ideology, but also of the official version of that time, brings us a picture of the event.
Now today, if we strip the event and remove from it the influence of the ideology of the time, it will remain evidence of a macabre murder, a criminal act. According to the data that have been found, researcher Doçi has managed to talk to an eyewitness herself, Mother Mara, as she calls her, conveying her words in the book.
The scene is so serious that the testimony seems almost unbelievable. “One was without an eye, without a part of the skull. The other one had no lips, no cheekbones, no… they were a horror. They were distinguished by their clothes. Make yourself stronger. Knives stuck wildly into their bodies. The decision was to torture them to death. In the face, he heard a wild scream. ”
For such a crime, the killers had to have very strong reasons. But what was this reason? Their monument located in Rrëshen, dedicated to Marta and Prenda Tarazhi, Shkurte Cara and Mrika Loka, was removed in 1993.
Another act of vandalism!
Why?
The monument that exalted the Albanian woman and her efforts after the liberation was the testimony and at the same time the memory of the shame of those families where the killers came from!
Who were the killers?
Committee of the Mountains?
Or was it simply a deformation of the communist system that caught it in its favor?
We will see it in the lines below!!
Even if it is true, the killing of these girls remains a low act, punishable by criminal law in every country of the civilized world.
Why were Mirdita’s daughters killed?
On this occasion, the researcher Luçie Doçi gives the official version of the murder of Marta and Prenda Tarazhi:
“Mother Mara heard a wild voice” Marta Tarazhi and Prenda Tarazhi! For violating the customs of the country, for following the paths of the communists, we sentence you to death with torture”.
But the way of the murder and, especially, the reasons for it, are given more clearly by the Prime Minister of that time, Enver Hoxha.
“From the bosom of this people, educated with the teachings of the Party, came the four brave girls of Mirdita, the four heroines: Mrikë Lokja, Shkurte Cara, Marta Tarazhi and Prenda Tarazhi, who stood up in the fight against the reaction, rejected the old customs, they volunteered for the construction of the railway, they came back to their families, this time stronger and more seasoned, therefore, as young women, with the lessons of the Party in their hearts, they began to work for the implementation of its straight line. Precisely for this reason, the reactionaries captured them, tortured them and killed them on April 25, 1948… But they became torches and shed light on the whole of Albania…”
Dile Guri was a contemporary, but also a friend of Marta and Prenda Tarazhi. Even she could have been killed like them. The release also gives the reasons for the murder. “I had friends Marta and Prena Tarazhi, but also Mrika Lokje and Shkurte Carë. The Committee of the Mountains had also sentenced me to death, but my relatives found out and took measures to prevent me from falling into their hands. They rose above the customs that humiliated the woman and left her in ignorance. They fought for the eradication of illiteracy, the opening of schools, the education of the masses. This work dazzled the Committee of the Mountains. Therefore they killed them, accusing them of violating the Kanun. But the Kanun was violated by the criminals themselves, killing the defenseless women”.
While Gjergj Ndoja goes even further when he also quotes the murderer. “The killing of heroines was political murder. Even the removal of their monument was political, it is a continuation of that war of darkness and light…
DESHMI “BURRERIE”
“MANHOOD TESTIMONY…..
Ndue P. Gjonmarku comes from Canada and proudly says
“I killed them”, considering their murder like a manly act!!! Oh God!
According to him, killing a human is an act of manhood?
But there is no place for manhood here, because the “Kanuni” forbids killing a woman. Even if they had done something shameful, it was not Kanun`s right to kill them…
DRAMATURG LONI PAPA
In 1960, in the newspaper “Voice of Youth / Zeri i Rinise”, a young journalist named Loni Papa published an article about the two girls Marta and Prenda Tarazhi.
6 years later, Loni Papa turned the script into a drama and on March 8, 1967 it was premiered at the “Popular Theater” by the director Pirro Mani with the title “Cuca e maleve”, which was later staged at the Theater of Opera and Ballet in Tirana (1974).
It was like a battle between the communist system that brought the new and the old customs that were represented by characters, who were mostly enemies of the power of that time. Of course, this is the year when religion was banned, and mixing the story of the two girls who were killed with religion was a find, but with the ideologization that was done to the story, it was more than normal for the time.
It is enough to read the motivation for awarding the title of heroine of the people on October 23, 1967, to understand more at what level this event was ideologized. “She is among the first women and girls who, with the word of the Party in her heart, bravely broke the path of newness and progress, the path of liberating women from the wild customs of the canon and religion. She fought selflessly against reactionaries and conservative elements, worked in an exemplary manner in the actions of building the country, for educational and cultural development, eagerly and intelligently absorbed the teachings of the Party and became an agitator, an ardent fighter for the emancipation of the Albanian woman. Caught treacherously by armed reactionary gangs, she was savagely massacred but stood firm and upright.”
They made them heroines, turned them into models of women who protected the young, which, according to them, only communism could bring.
The exclusivity on this page is dated March 5, 2022 ___________
Albanian cinematography in activity since 2013
Reference: “Events and dates” TVSH show on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the murder of Dile Pjeter Markut / Roland Qafoku “100 most sensational murders of the Albanian state” (1912-2017);
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