Kosovo Ambassador to Speak at Seton Hall
Monday, November 27, 2017
Until her appointment as Ambassador and Consul General of Kosovo in New York, Ambassador Sahatqija was a member of Parliament representing the Democratic League of Kosovo. She served as the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration. Additionally, during her six-years in Parliament, she served as the Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Caucus of Democratic League of Kosovo, President of Women Cross-Party Parliamentary Caucus, and First Vice-Chair of Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development.
She was also the Vice President Democratic League of Kosovo party from 2010-2015. From 2008-2010, the Ambassador served as President of the Reformist Party ORA and an Advisor to former President of the Republic of Kosovo, H.E. Fatmir Sejdiu. Prior to that she was also a member of Parliament from 2004-2007 serving as the Chair of the Parliamentary Group.
Between 1998 and 2004, Ambassador Sahatqija was a KVM-OSCE Comms and IT Officer in Kosovo and Albania while launching he own business venture in 1999, Idea Communication. From 1985-1987, she worked as a Maintenance Engineer and Software Programmer in a textile company Printeks, as well as a Manager of the computer center at a food production company Ereniku, both in Kosovo.
Ambassador Sahatqija holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pristina in Kosovo. In addition to that she also completed the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Dartmouth College in the United States receiving a Graduate Certificate. She speaks Albanian, English, Serbian, French, Turkish, and Italian.
In an interview in Chicago Policy Review, Ambassador Sahatqija spoke about building a coalition of women as the President of the Women's Parliamentary Caucus and the impact the organization has and could have:
It is very important to realize that institutions, municipalities, government, parliament are all products of political parties. And we cannot change the representation of women and women's role inside institutions if we do not work inside the political parties. That's why the Women's Caucus started a campaign inside parliament. The beauty of this is that women of different parties, different ethnicities, and different religions have worked together.
Together we went to the public television board and asked them to invite women to speak not only about soft issues but also about energy, foreign policy, and about everything that is important for women. We know that these issues are multidisciplinary, complex. So we defined in our strategy that we need to work in a multidisciplinary way, and we started to work heavily with women in political parties, in municipalities, in NGOs, in the media, and always included women from all nationalities. It is very beautiful, and I'm so proud of this. The women from Serb municipalities and from other parties that sometimes have disputes with Albanian parties or other municipalities, these women are cooperating perfectly with the women's caucus. We are working together.
You can read more of the Chicago Policy Review interview, "Beyond 'Soft' Issues: The Women's Caucus of Kosovo Speaks Up."
The event will be held on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
