Photo: Sanja Vrzić
She was born on the territory of Srebrenica municipality. Today, she lives and works in Tuzla. She survived conflict-related sexual violence, years as a refugee and domestic violence. She got educated, found a job and became an activist advocating the rights of victims of conflict-related sexual violence.
At the beginning of the war, Edina Karić, who was fifteen years old, was captured together with her father and they were kept prisoners at the Sase mine. Her father was sent away on a task with the threat that they would kill his daughter if he failed to come back. Since her father did not come back, Edina was taken for execution by a firing squad. After she managed to avoid being executed, Edina was raped and tortured multiple times. She was then taken to the refugee centre Loznica. Edina met a young man there and married him. After that, she went to Subotica, and from Subotica she continued to Hungary. At the beginning of 1993, she went back to Tuzla, and at the end of that year, she gave birth to a son. She continued living with her husband, and in 1995 she gave birth to her second son. In 1996 she got divorced, because her husband was abusing and harassing her. After the divorce, Edina, a single mother of a three-year boy and a seven-month old baby, enrolled to a high school. By attending school together with her children, Edina was trying to secure livelihood for herself and her family. She started working at the Heart Centre in Tuzla in 2008. In the meantime, she managed to put her two sons through school and they live together in the same household.
Edina Karić, who was a woman victim of conflict-related sexual violence, joined the women’s peace group “Žene u crnom” in 2010. After five years of her work there, she participated in Women’s Court, a feminist approach to justice, in Sarajevo as a witness. Today, Edina is a woman who is bravely dealing with daily life issues and the burden she has been carrying her whole life – a woman whose strength can be an inspiration for all challenges that lie ahead of us.
“The best thing you can do for yourself is not to keep silent, not to retreat back into your shell, to talk more, to talk more about your problems, etc. We are not even aware what strength we have to fight.”
FRAGMENT OF THE PAST
“I do not have an item that re-minds me of my past or constitutes a link to it. I do not have anything from the past, I failed to preserve anything. Not even pictures. Because it all stayed back in those moments, back in that time. Now, I have a small globe based on which I wish to say and show what I wish for. I would like to start a new life in a country that will understand me better. I would like to start a new life.”
