In the words of Aurela Anastasi: When women can claim their property rights, families become stronger and societies more equal

“When people ask me whether Albania’s legal framework for women’s property rights is advanced, I have to say it is ‘relatively advanced’ because real efforts have been made – which they really have. Especially over the last ten years, the legislation has improved considerably. The current laws create genuine opportunities for women to exercise their rights and register their property. But I am careful not to overstate this. The existence of a right on paper and the ability to use that right in practice are two different things. The gaps we have identified through our monitoring work in Peshkopi and Bulqizë, during interviews with rural women, local officials, lawyers, and notaries, clearly show that the law is not enough in and of itself.

What we found was striking. A considerable number of women we interviewed could not answer yes or no to our questions, not because they were unwilling, but because they simply did not know these issues existed. We asked whether they had ever applied for agricultural support schemes. Many said they did not know what to say because they had never heard of them. We asked whether they had voluntarily given up their rights to property. Many answered ‘yes’ though they did not understand what they were agreeing to. This tells us something urgent: these women need awareness, they need information, and they need someone to sit beside them and help them take concrete steps.

The approach of simply amending laws is not sufficient. Policymakers and institutions tend to change the legislation when they see problems, but what is needed here is a more human approach. We must inform women. We must raise awareness. We must counsel them, on a case-by-case basis. But above all, we must sit down with them and help them fill in forms, navigate digital systems, and complete documentation. A woman who has spent her life working in a rural farming household cannot reasonably be expected to access and navigate e-Albania services on her own. That support must exist in practice, not just on paper.

The stakes are higher than people realize. Not having your name on a property title is not merely a symbolic injustice. It means you cannot access credit or loans. It means you cannot benefit from various funding schemes. It means you may not even qualify for a pension because, in agricultural households, pension rights often flow through property ownership. I have seen this in my legal work. We have taken cases to court precisely to secure women’s property titles so they could claim their pension entitlements and their rights as members of farming households. The courts, I should say, are generally aware of these issues. Where the law regarding the cases before them is clear, judges do not hesitate to rule in women’s favor.

And yet we still encounter resistance that is hard to believe. Recently, a woman we were assisting was told by public authorities that she could not be registered on the property and that the appropriate course of action would be to seek division of ownership through the courts. That answer slides us back to the year 2000. It reflects a lack of awareness, insufficient training, and the consequences of constant staff turnover in public institutions.

I also want to challenge a misconception that comes up often, including among officials and institutions we work with. Many people assume that when we talk about women’s property rights, we are talking about divorced women. We are not. This is about all women, about fair societies, and about families that function on clear legal foundations, not only in times of crisis, but in times of stability as well. When a spouse dies and the surviving partner has no registered ownership, the inheritance process can go wrong, with property passing more easily to the children than to the person who contributed to building that life and those assets alongside her partner. The law has changed to address this. But if the law is not implemented, nothing changes in real life.

Men, too, are part of this story, and they are often more open to it than some might expect. In our consultations and fieldwork, husbands have frequently expressed support for their wives registering property in their names. They understand that when a woman is economically empowered, the whole family benefits. This is not a battle between men and women. It is a push for a society built more fairly, for families strengthened by legal clarity, and for women who can stand on solid ground, not because someone gave them permission, but because the law always said they could. The task now is to make sure they know this, and to make sure they are not left to do it alone.”