Berit Backer (August 3, 1947 – March 7, 1993) was a Norwegian social anthropologist and ethnographer, head of the Institute of Peace Research (PRIO) between 1978 and 1982 in Norway.
She published literature on Albanian family structures from studies conducted in the village of Isniq, in the Rugova valley of Kosovo.
[6] In 2018, Kosovos prime minister Hashim Thaqi dedicated the Presidential Jubilee Award to the Backer family.
[11] In 1990, Ann Christine Eek, a photographer at the University of Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, worked with Berit on an exhibition of Albanian culture in 1990 producing a book titled "Albanske tradisjoner" published in 1991.
[17] She also writes that the rural ideal of a man in the village of Isniq was not someone who easily fell in love, as this was a sign of unreliability and immaturity, but rather someone who could keep women at a distance.
[18] Backer stated that in 1975 there were more Albanian girls in school than boys and that the 1981 economic crash forced women to be dependent on their husbands.
[20] Backer was suddenly stabbed to death on Mars 7, 1993, in Norway by a 29-year old asylum seeking Kosovar Albanian man suffering from paranoia.
[21] The trial at the City Court of Oslo concluded that the perpetrator was mentally unstable and was sentenced to five years of preventive detention inside the psychiatric health service.