Sabiha Kasimati

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Sabiha Kasimati
Ph.D.)
Known forIchthyologist
Scientific career
Thesis Fauna ittica di acqua dolce d'Albania  (1941)
Signature

Sabiha Kasimati (15 September 1912 – 26 February 1951) was an

ichthyologist, cited as one of the first women scientists in Albania. She was arrested by the communist regime on 20 February 1951, after the bombing of the Soviet embassy, and a few days later was executed without trial along with 21 other intellectuals.[1]

Life

Early life

Kasimati came from a well-known intellectual family originated from

Libohova. She was born on 15 September 1912 in Edirne in the Ottoman Empire (today Turkey) to Abdurrahman Kasimati and Zehra Mbreshtani. Sabiha was the youngest of her five siblings. Her father, Abdurrahman, had completed his university studies in Medicine in Turkey, where he lived and worked as a doctor until 1927. The year in which he returned to Albania and where he first settled in Korçë, then in Elbasan were served as a physician.[2]

Sabiha Kasimati, in the center and the only woman in the photo

After settling in Korçë, she began her studies at the

National Lyceum, also known as the French Lyceum, a name which had left from the time of the First World War where the French presence. language and its culture in the city were quite significant. One of her classmates was the future dictator Enver Hoxha.[3] In 1930 she became the first woman to graduate from this school. She was fluent in several languages but especially French. Right after graduating from the Lyceum, she worked for some time as a teacher in the normal girls' school in the city, teaching the subjects of Moral Education and French Language. Later she transferred as a lecturer at the Albanian-American school in Kavajë
, where she taught one of the passions of her life, Biology.

In 1936 she was able to fulfill her desire for higher studies. The Albanian state awarded her a scholarship to the University of Turin, at the Faculty of Biological Sciences, which she successfully completed with full and excellent grades. In the summer of 1941, she defended her doctorate, with the topic: "Fauna ittica di acqua dolce d'Albania" (English: Fish fauna of fresh water of Albania) and sometime after returned to Albania.[4][5]

Career and scientific studies

Upon returning to her homeland, Kasimati was appointed a teacher at the Women's Institute "Nana Mbretëreshë", which after the Italian occupation was named "Donika Kastrioti".[6] In parallel with her pedagogical work, she gave an important place in her life and in her scientific activity to the study of the biology of sea fish that live in lagoons, swamps, collecting materials for the preparation of the major work of the future, the monograph: "Fishes of Albania". For health reasons she was forced to leave her pedagogical work and be treated at the anti-tuberculosis sanatorium in northern Italy in Bolzano, where she remained until 1945.[5]

After the end of the Second World War, Kasimati decided to return to her homeland in 1947, while the communists had just come to power in the country. With the establishment of the Institute of Studies, she is immediately appointed as a scientific specialist. A year later, when the institute is renamed the Institute of Scientific Studies, she is appointed zoologist specialist, profiled for ichthyology, in the section of biological sciences, with the head of the sector Dr. Sotir Angjeli. During this time Kasimati did the voluminous job of defining the scientific bibliography found in Albania at the time, especially with the confiscated library fund.[7]

Kasimati managed to write a long programmatic article entitled "Problems of fish and fisheries in our country", published in the Bulletin of the Institute in No. 2-3 of 1948.

Orata, and Eel. The latter, according to Kasimati, travel over 300 km to the Maliqi swamp. She points out the experiments for successfully growing and cultivating carp in rice fields. In order to convince the public and economists it analyzes and offers some suggestions where the state can benefit from fisheries, including newly formed cooperatives. According to those data, the amount of fish reached 3238-4881 quintal, mostly in the Narta area, while in other areas with even greater potential, such as the Butrint area, due to the lack of modern fishing boats or other equipment, this figures did not exceed 7–8% of the Narta area, thus maintaining a very important economic reserve. A negative phenomenon that Kasimati had ascertained, was the indiscriminate, very intensive exploitation of fish with high commercial values and consequently, the impoverishment of ichthyofauna with these species. For modern fishing that allowed a sustainable economic perspective, according to her, more important are the equipment for the conservation of live fish, special facilities, as well as premises for the storage and processing of fish products.[7][3]

In 1949, the Department of Natural Sciences carried out a long study expedition in the areas of

Qafë-Shtamë; Bogë, and Theth, thus realizing a verification of previous findings regarding the ichthyofauna of Albanian waters. At the end of this expedition, Kasimati managed to describe the representatives of families, orders, genera and species of all fish in Albania. After a scientific work in the middle of 1950, she submitted to the institute for publication the volume of about 200 pages, entitled "Fishes of Albania". This work summarized 257 species of fish, grouped in 211 families, of 99 orders, leaving without identifying ten species of fish, which usually come very rarely in the waters of the country, or which had not yet been encountered in the Adriatic Sea.[10] But just when the book was in print, even in the final stages of release, Kasimati is arrested.[11]

Criticism of the government, charges and execution

Further information: 1951 executions in Albania

Kasimati had long opposed many of the policies of the post-war communist regime, especially after the elimination and internment of some Albanian intellectuals, who often had nothing to do with the political opponents of the

Lenin."[2][13]

On 19 February 1951, a small amount of

Erzeni River and were shot.[4][2][14]

Mehmet Shehu, then Minister of Internal Affairs, was personally involved in the brief investigation of Kasimati. On March 5, the then Minister of Justice, Manol Konomi, was fired for disagreeing with the violation of legality and the fabrication of a trial that had not previously taken place for those 22 people already killed.[15]

Legacy

Her work was published but not under her name. "Fishes of Albania" documented the fish of Albanian lakes, rivers and the seas and it was publicised under the name of the Russian scientist Anatoly Poliakov and two Albanian researchers in 1955.

Kasimati is credited with creating the idea of an Albania's National Museum of Science. In October 2018, it was announced that the Albanian National Museum of Science would be named for and that an area of the museum would be set aside for her life story and sacrifice.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Kur Sigurimi Merrej me Shkencë". Issuu. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  2. ^ a b c Butka, Uran (2014-11-01). Bombë në Ambasadën Sovjetike (in Albanian).
  3. ^ a b "Sabiha Kasimati: Shkencëtarja e parë shqiptare". 15 September 2015. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Platform calls for a minute of silence for the women executed, killed, imprisoned, tortured and persecuted during Communism | Platform of European Memory and Conscience". www.memoryandconscience.eu. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 2018-10-26.
  5. ^ a b c "Sabiha Kasimati, Mehmet Shehut në hetuesi: Jeni kriminelë, do e paguani!" (in Albanian). Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  6. ISBN 978-0-317-18715-1
    .
  7. ^ a b Luarasi, Petro (15 September 2017). "Sabiha Kasimati. Nderim dhe brengë". Gazeta Telegraf (in Albanian). Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  8. ^ "Sabiha Kasimati Zëri që u shua në mesnatë". Gazeta Shqiptare Online (in Albanian). 2019-03-08. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  9. ^ Kasimati, Sabiha (1948). Problemet e peshkut dhe peshkimin në vendin tonë. Vol. 2–3. Instituti i Shkencave.
  10. ^ Sacdanaku; Bajrami; Saliaj; Mullaj (2018). "Museum of Natural Sciences "Sabiha Kasimati": past and present" (PDF). Museum of Natural Sciences.
  11. ^ "Kush ishte Sabiha Kasimati, shoqja e klasës së Enver Hoxhës që u pushkatua me urdhër të tij". Opinion.al (in Albanian). 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  12. ^ "Sabiha Kasimati – Zëri që u shua në mesnatë". VOAL - Voice of Albanians. 2019-03-09. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  13. ^ "Sabiha Kasimati e Musine Kokalari – dy mendje te bukura – Dielli | The Sun". 29 October 2017. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  14. ^ "70 vjetori i masakrës ndaj 22 intelektualëve/ Të pafajshëm, ekzekutohen me pretekstin e "bombës" në legatën sovjetike". arteka.al/ (in Albanian). March 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  15. ^ "Fotot e panjohura: Manifestimet te ambasada sovjetike në Tiranë, ku më 19 shkurt 1951, "u hodh dinamti", që çoi në pushkatimin e 22 intelektualëve të pafajshëm". Gazeta Tema (in Albanian). 2021-02-20. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  16. ^ "Sabiha Kasimati, founder of Albania's National Museum of Science, executed by Communist regime". top-channel.tv (in Albanian). Retrieved 2018-10-26.
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