Week 15

Women, Conflict, and Culture in Former Yugoslavia

Author(s): Jovanka Stojsavljevic

Source: Gender and Development , Feb., 1995, Vol. 3, No. 1, [Culture] (Feb., 1995), pp. 36-

41

Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Oxfam GB

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36

Women, conflict, and culture in former Yugoslavia Jovanka Stojsavljevic

Conflict signals a shock to the social order; violence against women escalates in the absence of cultural controls, and may be used as a weapon of war, and as a propaganda tool. This article examines these issues in the context offormer Yugoslavia, and discusses women's resistance to nationalist agendas.

T he countries of Slovenia, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia have had an

extremely turbulent history. As a result, the women's movement in the region has undergone many changes. In some circumstances, it has succumbed or adapted to the dominant culture and the political line taken by the government of the day. At other times, the movement has opposed the regime.

Since the break-up of former Yugoslavia, elements of these different reactions have taken place side by side. It has been tragic to witness women and women's groups, who were once united on the principles of global rights for women, becoming fragmented across the lines of the nationalist agendas of the warring parties. At the same time, it is incredible to see so many women continuing to resist the nationalist agenda, and to defy the state-controlled media propaganda. For three years, women's groups have organised to support survivors of war. They have raised funds to buy safe houses. They have worked relentlessly, without

salaries. Against all odds, women refuse to

hate their fellow people on the grounds of

their ethnic identity, even though they and

their families have now been suffering war

for three years.

The women's movement in former Yugoslavia

Tragically, one of the first events that took

place at the onset of the war was the

disintegration of the women's movement

across male-defined nationalist boundaries.

In 1987, the first National Feminist

Conference of Yugoslavia was held in

Ljubljana. One of the resolutions of this

conference was that women would not

recognise artificial male boundaries; that

they were united in sisterhood, and their common experiences as women over-rode male concerns for territorial rights and

geographical boundaries. It was also resolved that the male power struggles

should not be enacted across women's

bodies. These resolutions have been

challenged by the current civil war.

Gender and Development Vol 3, No. 1, February 1995

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Women, conflict, and culture in former Yugoslavia 37

The women's movement in Yugoslavia

was born during the Second World War,

with the formation of the Anti-Fascist Front

of Women. With the aim of ridding the

territory of fascism, women fought

alongside their male compatriots on the

front line, against the German Nazis, the

Chetniks of Serbia, who were mainly

royalists and supporters of the Orthodox

Church, and the Ustashi, fascists who were

backed by Hitler and formed a puppet

state. In effect, Yugoslavia suffered a civil

war while the world warred around it. As

is the case today, many unlikely alliances

between women were formed across the

territory, as factions who were normally

opposed joined in co-operation to attack

the 'other side'.

After the success of the 'partisans' in

suppressing the fascists, and the

establishment of the Socialist Federal

Republics of Yugoslavia, the Anti-Fascist

Front of Women was disbanded by the

Communist Party, on the basis that, under

communism, women would have equal

rights with men, and so there was no need

to organise separately. However, commun-

ism has never effectively addressed the fact

that societies throughout the world are

patriarchal, regardless of their political and

economic structures. This means that there

are a number of unwritten rules and

regulations, implicit to our cultures, that

explicitly disadvantage women.

In the 1970s, Yugoslavia witnessed the

setting-up of groups of women intellec-

tuals, who discussed and analysed the role

of women in society. These groups were

not involved in any kind of advocacy for

women's rights, nor were they involved in

supporting women whose rights had been

abused. In the early 1980s, a movement of

feminist activists emerged, influenced by

the women's peace movement in the West;

they organised fairly independently, often

in opposition to state institutions. These

feminist groups became actively involved

in advocacy and support work on issues

affecting women's lives, including rape

and domestic violence, pornography, and women's right to employment. The first SOS telephone-helpline for women and children experiencing rape and domestic violence was established in 1986, in Zagreb. Soon afterwards, a refuge for abused women was established.

The present situation

The women's movement in former Yugoslavia has been deeply affected by the nationalist agenda; it has lost the power to articulate any effective and united opposition to the war, and has so far been unable to prevent the widespread use of the violation of women as a propaganda tool to promote a nationalist agenda.

The language of the women's movement is now being used to further nationalist agendas: a leading member of the nationalist faction of the Croatian women's movement is quoted as making a comparison between Serb/male/aggres- sion against Croatia as a woman's body that is being assaulted. This statement caused a crisis which has led to Croatian feminists refusing to share platforms with Serbian feminists at international gather- ings of women opposed to the war, and attacks on feminists from Europe and America who invited women from Belgrade to such meetings.

In both Serbia and Croatia, those feminists who have refused to embrace the resurgence of nationalism and patriotism are accused of being enemies of the State by nationalist feminists, and by the mainstream media. Some have had to take refuge in other countries.

The feminist movement in Serbia has been further demoralised by the collective guilt feminists feel for the actions of the Serbian/Yugoslavian army and the Yugoslavian government. The war in former Yugoslavia first broke out in Slovenia, in June 1991, lasting for ten days.

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38 Gender and Development

In Croatia, it broke out in August 1991. Even at this stage, people in Bosnia vociferously stressed that it could never break out there. While Yugoslavia disintegrated, political leaders in Bosnia - Karadzic, Izetbegovic and Kljuic - were talking of running a collective presidency representing a multicultural society! War finally came to Bosnia in May 1992.

The war in former Yugoslavia is rooted in an attempt by old guard communists to use the ideology of nationalism to shore up their personal power. The first overtly public signs of this nationalism came in a speech by Slobodan Milosevic, leader of the Serbs, in 1989, in which he called on all Serbs to commemorate the battle of Kosovo and remember that this was the heart of their kingdom, before Ottoman occupation; he asserted that Serbs should never allow themselves to be oppressed again. This speech preceded a violent oppression of the Kosovo miners' strike, and the introduction of what is now effectively military rule.

Women are seen as guardians of their culture; sexual insults may be used if they threaten political agendas which are set by men. During 1987, the year that Milosevic became leader of the Serb Communist Party, and liberals were removed from influential positions, Ali Sukrija, leader of the Communist Party of Kosovo, was quoted as saying 'Serbian women in Kosovo were only fit to be prostitutes in cafes'. Serbian women in Kosovo staged spontaneous demonstrations, calling for intervention from the Yugoslav army to protect them from abuse. Demonstrators carried placards saying: 'We gave up our sons for Yugoslavia, now the Yugoslavian army should protect us!'

In 1990 the constitution of Serbia was changed. Kosovo and Vojvodina were no longer independent provinces of Serbia, except on paper, and the heads of the local communist parties were changed to those who were pro-Milosevic. At the Fourteenth

Congress of Yugoslav Communists,

Slovenians, and Croats walked out as Milosevic sought to gain control of the Yugoslav Communist Party.

Soon after the outbreak of war, women's

groups were organised by the respective

governments, in order to ensure that

nationalist views were articulated to, and

by, women. Thus, while women demon-

strated against their sons being drafted into

the Yugoslavian army, the same groups

kept quiet when men were mobilised into the newly formed Serbian, Croatian or

Bosnian armies. Those women who did

oppose the conscription of their sons into

their own national armies were vilified and

accused of wanting the destruction of their

own people, by not wanting the country to defend itself.

Women's resistance to nationalism

Some excellent work has been carried out

by women's groups who refused the

nationalist agenda, and many new

initiatives have been developed, since the

onset of war. There are now literally hundreds of NGOs in former Yugoslavia;

many of them are women's groups, set up for many different reasons. However, an aim common to all of them is to provide support to women and children who have

suffered sexual violence, 'ethnic cleansing', the separation from, or death of, their loved ones, and the loss of their homes and

livelihoods. Women and children form

approximately 80 per cent of the displaced

population across the territory of former Yugoslavia.

Some women's groups have maintained

a strong political focus for their work,

despite ridicule and attack. The group known as Women in Black, based in

Belgrade, organises weekly demonstrations

against the war; members stand in the

city's central square, dressed in black, in silent protest against the war.

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Women, conflict, and culture in former Yugoslavia 39

1*.

Bosnian refugee in Croatia. In former Yugoslavia, violence against women is publicised for propaganda purposes; the newspaper headline reads 'Through terror to greater Serbia'

Women, war, and sexual violence

Throughout history, sexual attacks on women have formed a common strategy of

male warfare. The aim of this strategy is to humiliate enemy men, and destroy the

fabric of the family and society; a raped woman is no longer viewed as 'clean', and often no longer has a place in her family or community. This view is clearly expressed in an article in one national newspaper in

Serbia, describing a woman's experience of rape by the enemy. The article ended, 'She would be better off dead than alive to shame her husband, her family and her community by giving birth to a child from the seed of the enemy.'

Raping and impregnating women also

serves as a strategy of 'ethnic cleansing': if a man from one nationality makes a woman from the enemy nationality

pregnant, then the child will automatically

take on the nationality of the rapist. In the

old patriarchal tradition, it is the father's

nationality that is important, and defines

the nationality of the child.

In a collective centre in Croatia, where

refugees and displaced people are housed,

a refugee woman was forced to flee again

after other refugees found out that she had

been raped, and would not get an abortion.

Ironically, this is in a country where the

Catholic church has a very strong in-

fluence, and where the government had

attempted, unsuccessfully, to introduce

legislation against abortion.

Despite the widespread incidence of

rape in conflict throughout history, this has

tended not to be recorded, except where it

can be used for propaganda purposes. The

war in former Yugoslavia has highlighted

rape as a strategy of war, and this has as a

result placed rape, occurring in the context

of conflict, on the international agenda.

However, at the height of the war in

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40 Gender and Development

Somalia, women in that country were also

being used and abused in their own civil

war, but this received no public attention. The international community has work

to do if rape is to be recognised fully as a

human rights issue. Rape of women is not

even mentioned in the Geneva Conven-

tions; and women seeking asylum in

Britain, on the basis of gender-based

persecution, are often rejected on the

grounds that being raped is a side-

consequence of war, arbitrarily meted out,

and so does not amount to 'persecution on

the grounds of political beliefs'.

The reason. wvhy the issue of rape inow

hias a puiblic pra file iniformer

YtNposlavia is ohiiy becauise of its use as a u(ea pan- of propaga-inda.

It could be argued that the reason why

the issue of rape now has a public profile in

former Yugoslavia is only because of its

use as a weapon of propaganda; it suits a

number of political agendas, which concem

both the national and international

communities: namely, geographical bound-

aries, territorial rights, and sovereign states.

It seems that it is not the right of women to

protection from sexual violation that is

important, but the wider political battles that can be fought through their experience

of violation.

The use of rape in conflict to further

these agendas results in further violations

of a woman's dignity and integrity. She

merely becomes the victim or object of her

own experience; her rape is seen as

important only because it is committed by

a man or men from an alien ethnic group, and not because rape is a crime of violence

against her.

Publicity about rape in former Yugo-

slavia has resulted in further insensitivities, or even outright abuse, being aimed at

women who have experienced rape. NGOs

and journalists have flooded into the

territory, saying '1 want to interview a raped

woman', or '1 want to counsel women who have been raped.' Books have been written

with gratuitous details of women's

experiences of rape. I would ask why this is;

surely it is not to improve care and support

for the victims of rape, nor to advocate

women's rights during war, but rather to

prove that one race of men is the aggressor

against another race of men. Invariably,

sensational media coverage of the rape of

women in former Yugoslavia has resulted in

women rape victims becoming unable to

voice their trauma; this additional torment

for women who have already undergone

extreme suffering has attracted condem-

nation from indigenous women's groups

across the territory.

Women's survival strategies

The suffering caused to women by the war

is not limited to rape, 'ethnic cleansing',

loss of homes, livelihoods, family and friends. War causes the destruction of

economies and the social welfare system.

As a result, women are forced to become

single heads of their families and take

responsibility for provision of food,

clothes, and other necessities, as well as

caring for vulnerable members: children,

the elderly, and the disabled.

One of Oxfam's strategic aims in former

Yugoslavia is 'to empower women to

challenge the causes and alleviate the

effects of gender-based suffering caused by

patriarchal structuring of society and

exacerbated by armed conflict'. Funda- mental to this aim is that women's voices

are heard; that women articulate their own

experiences and needs, and formulate their

own strategies for survival. Oxfam is

currently working on an initiative to record

women's testimonies of war. It is a contri-

bution towards ensuring that women's

voices are heard from their own perspec-

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Women, conflict, and culture in former Yugoslavia 41

4~~~~~~t

,~~~~~~~~4 An income-generating project can provide an opportunity for women who have experienced violence to support each other.

tive as subjects of their experience and as a force for change.

A number of other initiatives have been

developed over the past two years to

support women to reconstruct the fabric of

their society. In Tuzla, we have a psycho- social programme, in the form of

occupational workshops where women can

meet and talk, away from the refugee

centres. Here, women can utilise their skills

and earn a small income, by sewing and

knitting warm clothing for other refugees

in central Bosnia. Oxfam is supporting a

similar initiative in Belgrade.

In Croatia, Oxfam has helped to

strengthen and build the capacity of a local women's group, that facilitates self-help and mutual support groups for displaced

women and refugees. We are also preparing a programme that will enable

displaced women who cannot return home,

to achieve sustainable livelihoods through training in micro-enterprise.

Another strategy for achieving our aim

is to facilitate communication and

networking between women's groups

across the territory of Former Yugoslavia.

Apart from planning a regional conference

on violence against women and enabling

local partners to participate in the UN

conference on Women in Beijing, Oxfam

has funded Electronic Witches to link up

Oxfam offices and various women's groups

to E-mail. This will ensure that groups who

are currently isolated, will be able to make

contact, share information, experience and

knowledge with other groups working on

similar issues, both across the territory and internationally.

Jovanka Stojsavljevic is Oxfam's Regional Representativeforformer Yugoslavia.

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