Motrat Qiriazi: The Sisters Who Educated Albanian Women

7 min read

In 1891, in the southern Albanian city of Korçë, a young woman and her brother opened a school. It was the first school in the Albanian lands where girls could be taught in their own language. At a time when Albanian-language schools were rare and closely watched by the Ottoman authorities, when the Greek Orthodox hierarchy actively opposed Albanian-language education, and when the education of women was widely dismissed as impractical or improper, Sevasti Qiriazi and her brother Gjerasim opened a classroom, and Sevasti’s younger sister Parashqevi soon joined them. They changed what an Albanian woman could be. This is their story. Motrat Qiriazi (the Qiriazi Sisters), Sevasti (1871 to 1949) and Parashqevi (1880 to 1970), are remembered for the first Albanian-language girls’ school, opened in Korçë on October 15, 1891, by Sevasti and their brother Gjerasim Qiriazi. Working with Gjerasim and, after his death in 1894, with their brother Gjergj, they helped build a network of Albanian schools during the Ottoman period, defied bans on Albanian-language education, and pushed for women’s participation in national life. Parashqevi Qiriazi is remembered as the only woman delegate at the 1908 Congress of Manastir, which standardized the Albanian alphabet. Together, the sisters are foundational figures in Albanian women’s education and in the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja). TLDR:

• Sevasti (1871 to 1949) and Parashqevi Qiriazi (1880 to 1970) were Albanian educators and activists.
• They opened the first Albanian-language girls’ school in Korçë on October 15, 1891.
• Their brother Gjerasim Qiriazi, a Protestant preacher, co-founded the school; after his death in 1894 Sevasti ran it, with help from their brother Gjergj.
• Parashqevi was the only woman delegate at the 1908 Congress of Manastir, which standardized the Albanian alphabet.
• The sisters continued teaching, publishing textbooks, and organizing Albanian women’s associations through the interwar period.
• Today, their names are on schools across Albania and Kosovo; October 15 is remembered in Albanian education history.

The Family and the Setting

The Qiriazi family lived in Manastir (Bitola, in modern North Macedonia), a city that in the late Ottoman period was a major center of Balkan cultural and political ferment. The family was Orthodox Christian and part of the broader Albanian community spread across the Ottoman vilayets of Manastir and Yanya (Ioannina). The Ottoman Empire at this time did not recognize the Albanian language as legitimate for public education. Schools operating in Albanian were technically illegal, and Albanian nationalists faced pressure from Ottoman authorities as well as from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which insisted that Orthodox Albanians be educated in Greek. The Qiriazi children were educated in Greek schools first and later through American Protestant missionary networks. Sevasti attended the American mission school in Manastir and then the American College for Girls in Constantinople (later merged with Robert College), graduating in 1891 as the first Albanian woman to complete a college degree. Parashqevi followed the same path and graduated from the American College for Girls in 1904. Their older brother Gjerasim (1858 to 1894) studied at the American college in Samokov, Bulgaria, worked for the British and Foreign Bible Society, and became a Protestant preacher; their brother Gjergj (1868 to 1912) studied at the same college.

Founding the First Albanian Girls’ School (1891)

On October 15, 1891, in Korçë, Sevasti Qiriazi and Gjerasim Qiriazi opened the first school in the Albanian lands where girls could study in their own language. The school was known as Shkolla e Vashave (the Girls’ School) of Korçë. Naim Frashëri, then an Ottoman official, helped them obtain the authorization from Istanbul. The school started in a modest building and moved to larger premises the following summer to make room for more pupils; between 1891 and 1913 it averaged about 47 students a year. Its curriculum was taught in Albanian, an act of quiet but real defiance of the Greek Patriarchate’s authority over Orthodox schooling, and it faced opposition from local Ottoman officials. It was run as a Protestant school but welcomed girls of all religions. The response from local Albanian families was gradual but real. Parashqevi began helping her older siblings teach while still a child, and after Gjerasim’s death in 1894 Sevasti ran the school. The sisters trained their own successor teachers, published Albanian-language textbooks, and expanded their curriculum to include not just literacy but arithmetic, history, geography, and needlework.

The Wider Educational Network

The Korçë girls’ school was part of a larger effort by the Qiriazi family and other Albanian educators to build an Albanian-language school system inside the Ottoman Empire. Alongside similar efforts at the male-only Mësonjëtorja in Korçë (opened in 1887), the girls’ school anchored a growing network of Albanian schools across the south. Gjerasim Qiriazi, working through Protestant missionary contacts, arranged the printing of parts of the Bible in Albanian and wrote poetry, hymns and school texts; after his death his brother Gjergj published his writings, was a delegate at the 1908 Congress of Manastir, and co-founded the newspaper Bashkimi i Kombit. The brothers’ work made the sisters’ teaching possible; their teaching kept the language alive in a generation of Albanian women who would go on to shape the National Awakening. Ottoman authorities intermittently pressured Albanian schools depending on the political mood. The Korçë girls’ school kept operating until 1914, when war conditions and the Greek occupation of Korçë forced it to close.

Parashqevi at the Congress of Manastir (1908)

In November 1908, delegates from across the Albanian lands met in Manastir (Bitola) to settle the Albanian alphabet. Multiple competing scripts had been in use, Arabic-based, Greek-based, and Latin-based, and the National Awakening needed a single writing system to unify Albanian literature and education. Parashqevi Qiriazi was one of the delegates, attending in place of Sevasti, who had been invited to represent the girls’ school but could not go. She was the only woman among approximately 50 delegates. Her presence made a statement in itself: Albanian nationalism, as the Qiriazi family understood it, included women. The Congress of Manastir chose the Latin-based alphabet that Albanian still uses today. Parashqevi’s role there is remembered as a marker of Albanian women’s inclusion in national politics, a moment that would echo through the following generations.

Continued Work Through Independence and Beyond

Albania declared independence in 1912. The years that followed were turbulent, the Balkan Wars, the First World War, and the shifting borders of the new state disrupted schooling and public life. The Qiriazi sisters continued their educational work despite the disruption. In 1914 the sisters left Korçë for Romania and then the United States. In Boston, Parashqevi published the periodical Yll’ i Mëngjesit (The Morning Star) from 1917 to 1920, and in 1919 she represented the Albanian-American community at the Paris Peace Conference. Back in Albania in the early 1920s, the sisters and Sevasti’s husband Kristo Dako founded the Kyrias girls’ institute in Tirana and Kamëz, and they continued to write and edit Albanian textbooks. They campaigned for women’s rights within the young Albanian state, access to education, participation in civic life, and equal citizenship. Their vision was practical rather than radical: they argued that a nation could not develop without educating its women.

Legacy

Sevasti Qiriazi died in 1949. Parashqevi, who was held in the Banjica camp near Belgrade during the Second World War because of her anti-fascist views, lived until 1970, long enough to see the school system she helped build stretch across a modern Albania, even though the communist government persecuted her family. Today the Qiriazi sisters are foundational figures in Albanian women’s history. Their names appear on schools in Tirana, Korçë, Klina in Kosovo, and across the Albanian world. October 15, the anniversary of the first Korçë girls’ school opening, is remembered in Albanian educational history. Beyond the schools, the sisters shaped a particular Albanian ideal: that female education is inseparable from national development, that a woman’s participation in public life is not a foreign import but part of Albania’s own tradition of resistance and renewal. That ideal has been passed down to modern Albanian women teachers, professors, doctors, entrepreneurs, and community leaders across the diaspora.

What to See and Read

• Korçë Old Town, the city where the first girls’ school opened; you can still visit the neighborhoods where the Qiriazi sisters taught.
• The National Museum of Education in Korçë, housed in the building of the first Albanian school (the 1887 Mësonjëtorja), documents the founding of Albanian-language schools in the city.
• Qiriazi Sisters commemorations, anniversary events held in Albania and Kosovo around October 15.

The Qiriazi sisters appear alongside other famous Albanian women in history, from Donika Kastrioti to Musine Kokalari.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who were Motrat Qiriazi?

“Motrat Qiriazi” means “the Qiriazi Sisters” in Albanian. They were Sevasti Qiriazi (1871 to 1949) and Parashqevi Qiriazi (1880 to 1970), Albanian educators and activists who, with their brother Gjerasim, founded the first Albanian-language school for girls in 1891 and helped lead the Albanian National Awakening.

When and where did the Qiriazi sisters open their school?

They opened the first Albanian-language girls’ school on October 15, 1891, in Korçë, a city in southeastern Albania. The school had official Ottoman authorization but operated under difficult conditions, facing opposition from local Ottoman officials and from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

Why was opening an Albanian-language school for girls significant?

Albanian-language schooling was rare and restricted in the Ottoman Empire. Girls’ education, in particular, was rare and often blocked by both official policy and social norms. The Qiriazi sisters’ school challenged both, asserting that Albanian was a serious language and that Albanian women deserved formal education.

What role did the Qiriazi brothers play?

Their older brother Gjerasim Qiriazi (1858 to 1894), a Protestant preacher and Bible translator, co-founded the girls’ school with Sevasti. Another brother, Gjergj Qiriazi (1868 to 1912), helped run the school after Gjerasim’s death, published his writings, and was a delegate at the 1908 Congress of Manastir.

What is the Congress of Manastir?

The Congress of Manastir was a 1908 meeting in Manastir (modern Bitola, North Macedonia) that settled the Albanian alphabet. Parashqevi Qiriazi was the only woman delegate. The Congress adopted the Latin-based script Albanian still uses today.

Did the Qiriazi sisters continue their work after Albanian independence?

Yes. Independence in 1912 opened space for Albanian-language schools across the country, and the sisters continued teaching, writing textbooks, and organizing women’s associations through the interwar period. Parashqevi also published an Albanian-American periodical in Boston and represented the Albanian-American community at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Are there schools named after Motrat Qiriazi today?

Yes. Schools and educational institutions in Tirana, Korçë, Klina and other Albanian cities carry the Qiriazi name. Their legacy is embedded in the Albanian public education system on both sides of the border.

Why are the Qiriazi sisters important to Albanian women today?

They are the historical foundation of Albanian women’s education and public life. Every generation of Albanian women in schools, universities, professions, and political life owes something to the tradition the Qiriazi sisters built.

Related Reading

• Famous Albanian Women: 20 Trailblazers
• When Did Albania Gain Independence?
• Fan Noli: The Bishop Who Shaped Albanian America
• The Kanun: Albania’s Ancient Code of Honor
• Famous Albanians From History

This article draws on standard Albanian historical sources on the National Awakening period, including the Encyclopaedia Britannica overview of the Albanian National Awakening, records of the Congress of Manastir (1908), and mainstream biographies of the Qiriazi family. Dates and events follow scholarly consensus; where sources differ, we note it.