Crafting a future: Benazi Shemovska’s journey to building opportunities for women in rural North Macedonia

In the small municipality of Centar Zhupa, west of North Macedonia, a 35-year-old biology teacher, now a school principal, is the face of change and progress for women and girls.

Her zeal for education aside, Benazi Shemovska is passionate about women's rights. In the past three years, her efforts have been instrumental in creating and running a multifunctional Women’s Centre in Centar Zhupa, a safe space for socialization, learning, and handicrafts.

She is dedicated to mobilizing women from the municipality and over twenty surrounding villages, empowering them to become independent, organized, and active in their communities, and encouraging them to strive for equality in all aspects of life.

“Many women are still unaware of their rights to certain things. We have the right to many things, but we deny them to ourselves. We say, ‘I can’t go to the municipality,’ ‘I can’t drive a car - that’s a man’s job.’ But that’s not true. It all comes down to education, or rather, upbringing at home, first and foremost,” she explains.