Initiatives for naming streets and public spaces after women in Bosnia and Herzegovina – two years later

The initiative ”Peace with a Woman’s Face” that involves 13 women’s non-governmental organisations from Bosnia and Herzegovina and forumZFD initiated a campaign entitled ”100 Women – 100 Streets Named after Women” at the end of 2021. The idea was to make the names of public spaces in our country gender-sensitive. More specifically, in practical terms this meant […]

Storm of revisionism and pogrom of remembrance  

On Friday, I watched my fellow citizens go to Prijedor for a commemoration of victims of the military operation Oluja. Everything was the same as two months ago, when they went to an assembly to support Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade, which was also organised by the local SNSD and entailed a non-working day and extended weekend, flags[…]

WAR AND PEACE WITH AND WITHOUT A WOMAN’S FACE 

Images from the war-torn Ukraine have reminded many of us of the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. The images of destroyed cities and villages, men in uniforms, women and children in lines of refugees, statements of male politicians appearing on TV on a daily basis and giving ominous warnings about the possibility of an even greater destruction, including[…]

Domestic Music and Algorithms

Recognition of the genre “domestic music” on Internet music services like YouTube and Spotify Balkan mix. Domestic music. Domestic rock. Domaćica. Ex-Yu hits. We find thousands of playlists with similar names on music services like YouTube or Spotify. These are collections of popular songs created by users from various areas of the former Yugoslavia or diaspora, united[…]

The Weight of the Past

While the contemporary regional cinematography has created a nearly separate thematic and genre area to confront the bloody wartime past as a constant segment of Balkan history, the theatre still enters this cathartic space timidly and unconsciously. Although in their works, both film and theatre, in their distinct characteristic and painful ways, confront the bloody wartime past[…]

WARM Academy 2023 Open Call

WARM Foundation / WARM Academy5th edition TELLING THE STORY IN TIMES OF CRISISOPEN CALL Sarajevo, 10-15 July 2023Application deadline: 25 June 2023 Dear Sir/Madam, We are delighted to inform you about the upcoming 5th edition of the WARM Academy, organized by the WARM Foundation. The WARM Academy is a multidisciplinary educational program that aims to explore and[…]

Painful ineffectiveness of facing the past

The leaving of Mile Đukanović marks the end of an era in the Montenegrin political life. Far from being ideal, and much nearer to the criminal structures, the politician Đukanović was, however, successful in achieving one thing – facing the past and admitting errors. Such as the genocide in Srebrenica and the surrender of Bosniak civilians to[…]

We all know who is in favour of the war. Is there anyone who is in favour of peace?

War-mongering terminology is not unknown in the public discourse in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Depending on the given moment, event of national or global politics, marking of certain events or anniversaries, we are witnesses of calls for war, mobilisation and obligation to protect ”our own”. Such statements mostly come from leaders of right-wing nationalist parties and individual religious[…]

REMEMBERING WOMEN DURING THE WAR 

Dissatisfied with poor working conditions and low salaries, female employees in the clothes and textile industry in New York took to the streets on March 08, 1857. In the coming years, demonstrations continued on the same date. Five decades later, in 1910, the first International Women’s Conference was held in Copenhagen. It was organised by the Socialist[…]

NERMINA’S CHANCE

A NOVEL DEDICATED TO “DEALING WITH THE PAST” Dina Greenberg’s trauma-informed writing, research, and teaching gives voice to survivors of war, displacement, and sexual violence. Nominated for The Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and The Millions, her publications include NERMINA’S CHANCE, a novel that begins in 1992 Bosnia. After her family is murdered and she is raped[…]