Police in Kumanovo detained a 39-year-old woman after she, according to the Interior Ministry, physically attacked her own mother and smashed up the home where they live together. The call came in at three after midnight; the detention followed around five in the morning.

According to the official statement, the mother - aged 61 - reported herself that her daughter had attacked her and damaged part of the household belongings. Officers from the Kumanovo regional police reacted to the report, and a criminal complaint will follow against the suspect.

Behind the cold police language hides a harder story. Domestic violence here is most often reported only once it turns into a physical attack - which is exactly why the number of reported cases is just the tip of the iceberg. How many mothers still stay silent, believing that "it's a family matter after all"? This mother's report, however painful, is the very opposite of silence - and perhaps the only way for anything to change.