Muslim Women in War and Crisis: Representation and Reality

12. Former Yugoslavia. Images of Women in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Neighboring Countries, 1992-1995

12 iMages of WoMen in bosnia, herzegovina, and neighboring Countries, 1992–1995 zi l ka spahi ć -ši l j ak Images of women, especially as portrayed during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and neighboring countries, reflect ethnonational politics and ideologies prevalent at the time. This chapter begins by tracing the status and roles of Balkan women in public life, starting in 1946—the year in which they obtained suffrage. The first section provides a sociopolitical context, describing how women’s rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina were framed by predominant images of “worker,” “proletarian,” and respectable “Communist.” It should be noted that “motherhood” remained the predominant image by which the socialist egalitarian facade identified, repressed, and veiled the female population. The second section covers the period of war (1992–1995) and the role of ethnonational ideologies in building new images of women, such as “Mother of the Nation,” “[Mother of the] Homeland,” “National Heroine,” “Pride of the Nation,” and “Ethic Paradigm” (i.e., woman as safeguard of ethnonational honor). The third section deals with gender-based violence, in particular rape and other forms of sexual abuse, which proved highly successful in literally destroying women’s bodies and figuratively destroying the “bodies” of nationstates . Gender-based violence effectively transformed the image of women from “the Nation’s Pride” to “the Nation’s Shame.” iMages of WoMen in yugoslavia, 1945–1990 After World War II, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was established. This new republic, founded on socialist political concepts and ideology, became a center of mass industrialization and urbanization. In fact, Yugoslavia’s economic development surpassed all other socialist countries in Eastern Europe. Its constitutional and legal framework offered equal opporfo rMe r y ug o sl avi a 214 zilka spahić-šiljak tunities to men and women in every sphere of life, including representation in politics. From the beginning days of the Yugoslav republic, constitutional provisions were followed by intense activism on the part of women within the Communist Party (CP).The most prominent women’s movement at the time was the Antifascist Front of Women (AFW). Its primary objectives were the eradication of illiteracy and the full participation of women in public life. A new image of women emerged: prominent proletarian figures marching shoulder to shoulder with men. Images of women building factories, roads, railways, and settlements for the working class became commonplace. The AFW successfully gathered women around this egalitarian vision. However, the AFW’s close ties to the Communist Party resulted in limitations on its actual power. In fact, the Communist Party used the AFW as a successful tool to consolidate revolutionary power, mobilizing large numbers of women to rebuild the new republic and to solve accumulated social problems.1 Consequently , the AFW lost all autonomy and ability to focus on women’s issues; instead, it became the executor of previously prepared political goals of the CP.2 An expansive Communist bureaucracy emerged, with numerous branches and departments used for the purpose of exercising Party discipline. The real problems that women faced in daily life were largely ignored. Within ten years after the end of World War II, the AFW was abolished. The doyenne of the AFW movement, Neda Božinović, observed that patriarchy, more than any other obstacle, contributed to the dissolution of the AFW: I came to the conclusion that that event [the dismantling of the AFW], had at its base a patriarchal outline—it was difficult to accept women as equal people. Even then, socialism proclaimed equality for women, but under “our control”—control of the Socialist Party.3 Although gender equality had been formally guaranteed and advocated, in reality a patriarchal system prevailed, which managed to keep women out of politics and power and “outside the decision-making mainstream.”4 To confirm the validity of this statement, one need only examine statistical data regarding women’s representation in economic and political life at that time. Despite equal access to all positions of employment, a hidden patriarchal agenda operated to systematically promote gender dichotomy. The result was a “feminization of occupations.” In other words, female children were encouraged to attend schools that provided instruction in so-called women’s occupations (i.e., education, health, and social care). These occupations provided 215 iMages of WoMen ample time and opportunity for women to take care of their families. Child rearing and housekeeping remained indisputably natural female obligations. Woman and household symbolized...