photographed in the Museum „Site of Witness and Memory“, Shkodra

Born on November 8, 1939, in Tirana, Fatbardha Mulleti faced the harsh consequences of the communist regime due to her family connection to Qazim Mulleti, the former prefect of Tirana. When she was just 5 years old, her father, Haki Mulleti, was arrested and sentenced as part of the “Tirana Group,” and the family’s property was confiscated.

Her family was interned in Kavajë, where Fatbardha completed her 7-year schooling in 1952 and later graduated from the “28 Nëntori” high school in Shkodër in 1957. After finishing her studies, she worked as a teacher in the villages of Lezha, including Kallmet, Manati, Blinisht, and Dajç in Zadrima. Through determination and sacrifice, she managed to complete her higher education, but in 1975 she was dismissed from teaching due to her „bad biography“ and her refusal to collaborate with the State Security (Sigurimi).

After the fall of the communist regime, Fatbardha made an extraordinary contribution to collecting the testimonies of women and children who survived internment camps. Their painful stories have been published in several works, including Dhimbje (Pain, Tirana: 2008), Kalvari i grave në burgjet e komunizmit (The Calvary of Women in Communist Prisons, Tirana: 2013), and Përndjekja e Hajrie Mulletit: Stigma e një komedie (The Persecution of Hajrie Mulleti: The Stigma of a Comedy, Tirana: 2022), among others.