Parashqevi Qiriazi

Parashqevi Qiriazi (Paraskevi D. Kyrias) (27 May 1886

Biography Parashqevi was born in Monastir, in the Manastir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia).

She later studied at the American College for Girls at Constantinople. Upon her graduation in 1904, she went to Korçë to relieve her sister Sevasti as director of the Girls School.

In 1908, she was a participant in the Congress of Monastir and the only woman to be there.

In 1909, she published an abecedarium for elementary schools. Although the Congress of Monastir had decided about the new alphabet, two versions of the alphabet were still present in her abecedary, which shows how fragile the consensus of the Congress still was. However, along with the abecedarium, she published some very well known verses on the defense of the new Albanian alphabet:

Tosk AlbanianEnglishArmiqëtë o shqipëtarë, Po perpiqenë Shkronjat turçe dhe greqishte, të na apënë; Le t'i mbajnë ata per vetëhe; Kemi tonatë.The enemies o Albanians, Are trying Turkish and Greek letters, To give us; Let them keep theirs; We have ours.

She is also known for having organized teaching for children and night schools in other southern Albania villages and for helping to organize local libraries.

She contributed to the foundation of the Yll' i Mëngjesit association in 1909 and later, when she had migrated to the US, she continued to publish the periodical with the same name from 1917 to 1920. The magazine was published every fortnight and included articles on Albanian politics, society, history, philology, literature, and folklore.

Parashqevi returned to Albania in 1921, after which she followed political developments there with interest, without losing sight of national aspirations. She became one of the founders and directors of the Female Institution named "Kyrias," after her family, in Tirana and Kamëz, in cooperation with her sister Sevasti and brother-in-law Kristo Dako.

In October 1928, at the initiative of the Ministry of Interior, the organization "Gruaja Shqiptare" ("The Albanian woman") was founded in Tirana, with plans to create branches nationwide and in the diaspora. It was created under the patronage of the Queen Mother and King Zog's sister Princess Sanije. The organization aimed at promoting education, hygiene, and charitable activities, and raising Albanian women to a higher cultural level. As a well-educated woman, Parashqevi succeeded in gaining a leadership position in it. Between 1929 and 1931, the organization published its periodical Shqiptarja ("The Albanian "), which featured many articles contributed by Parashqevi and her sister Sevasti. The journal took issue with conservative thinking, championing the women's movement and its demands.

Parashqevi stood as a firm anti-fascist throughout World War II, starting from the Italian invasion of 1939. Because of her anti-fascist views, she and her sister were sent to the Banjica concentration camp near Belgrade by pro-Nazi units led by Xhaferr Deva.

From 1931 to 1939 Parashqevi Qiriazi was named on the International Council of Honour of the Bible Lands Missions' Aid Society, alongside other Protestants such as John Henry House and Samuel Zwemer.

She survived and returned to Tirana after the war, but she and her sister's family then faced further persecution. Because of his past affiliation with Zog, Kristo Dako was posthumously vilified by the communist regime,