Women's March/ Majlinda Bregu's Proposal: Put Historical Figures on Banknotes

2025-03-04 17:44:00, Aktualitet CNA

By Majlinda Bregu

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 historical figures, all men, such as Naim Frashëri (200 lekë), Ismail Qemali (500 lekë), Pjetër Bogdani (1000 lekë), Illyrian King Gent (2000 lekë) and Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg (5000 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 of 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 lek coin, which portrays Queen Teuta who made Illyria one of the most important states in the Mediterranean!

Women's March/ Majlinda Bregu's Proposal: Put Historical Figures on

"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 to earn it easily and spend it just as easily, but also how to earn, save, invest, and manage financial markets.

Women's March/ Majlinda Bregu's Proposal: Put Historical Figures on

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 defied the impossible with her stubbornness to be free! /CNA