Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women's Activism and Feminist Politics

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics

VJOLLCA KRASNIQI AND JELENA PETROVIĆ Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics

By Vjollca Krasniqi and Jelena Petrović

Fondacija Jelena Šantić

Feminine in post-time and post-space

Dubravka Stojanović 1 ‘Personal is political’, and ‘Political is personal’. is ‘Political and political’, is ‘Personal well-known 1968 slogan 1968 well-known the of paraphrase a of paraphrase a be could This political. is Feminine the linking to the 19 the to linking the to women. Something similar was behind eration would inevitably bring freedom lib class that believed was it cause be idea, socialist the with ciated asso logically were they Initially, er, close, ‘brother’, ‘sister’ issues. oth to related been always have they cal. Ever since the women’s issues issues were first raised in the 19 women’s the since Ever cal. politi the paralleled has Feminine as asymbiosis. them regard we when intertwined, are we see and understand better when they feminine, as well as political them, of Both status. women’s of issue the litical issues have always referred to po other all that also but litical, sues have always been emphatically po is women’s that means it time, same Activism and Feminist Politics. At the the to book Notes on study (Post-) Yugoslav Women’s introductory Krasniqi Petrovi Jelena of ning th 1 at the begin ć century idea idea century and Vjollca Vjollca and th century, ------

Feminine in post-time and post-space of nationalism – the conviction that 7 free nation could also bring freedom to women. Moreover, the movement of decolonisation had a forceful women’s imprint, motivated by the belief that women would be free with liberation from the colonial power. Liberalism too, focused on the free individual, promised in its program a free female individual. Democracy, introducing the principle of general and thus women’s suffrage, seemed like a good ally. The political bonds between these ideologies and the women’s movement were clear, but women’s issues were always treated as an appendage, as something that could only later emerge from other, older, more important, prioritised forms of freedom. Only feminism of the 1960s started to invert such state of affairs and to clearly promote that without a free woman there could be no free society, class, or nation. And no free men either.

For the theme of this book, it is also particularly important that the feminine has always been pacifist as well. Naturally, this does not mean that all women have been pacifists, but rath- book is based on. In these interviews, this interviews the in us to say ists activ female what understand to der or in needed context historical cise The above would constitute a very con longer consenttoit. no would they that say to women drove immediately fronts, other and Western sinking into the muddy trenches of the fell, civilisation the which in abyss The competitions. knightly in prevail timate challenge, where the best would flict, the war was regarded as the ul al, since until this first global con the first anti-war movements in gener should be understood as being a part of League for Peace and Freedom. All this International Women’s the founded and Hague The in congregated countries 12 from pacifists female 1915, In ated. cre were organisations anti-war en’s of the First World War, the first wom beginning the after Immediately 1901. in established was Prize Peace Nobel trian pacifist Bertha von Suttner, the which, upon the initiative of the Aus from 1880s, the of institutions peace been feminist, have starting from the firstmovements pacifist all that er ------

Feminine in post-time and post-space eight women spoke about their polit- 9 ical, anti-war and artistic activism they used in opposing the 1990s wars led by their national leaders in the former Yugoslavia, especially in Ser- bia and Kosovo. For that reason, the fundamental questions are how to understand Yugoslav anti-war feminism and where to locate it in the political sense.

It is certain that, from its very be- ginnings in the 1970s, feminism in the SFRY was always dissident, for it was critical of the way Marxism remained blind to the exploitation of women, as a special form of subjugation. However, Yugoslav feminism also manifested some important differences when compared to the feminisms that were emerging in other parts of the world in the late 1960s. Unlike feminism in the East, which was not critical of the West and capitalism, Yugoslav feminism was. Additionally, Yugoslav feminism was critical of the most of the domestic dissidents, who criticised communism mainly from the Right, as traditional- ists, nationalists and patriarchalists, thus being even more adverse to wom- litical movements. This research tes research This movements. litical tions, organisations, artistic and po the ac anti-war first the creating war, against up stood unequivocally they forerunners, pacifist their with compliance in Completely Yugoslavia. former the in wars the of beginning the at particularly journey, lonely very a on embarked feminists Yugoslav the researchinterview. dare, as Svetlana Slap feminists spoke what no one else would of Yugoslavideas.political close other protection broader sought often most which movements women’s of tory coming a precedent in the general his governmental or oppositional, thus be mainstream, political any from ments move and ideas their disassociating path, own their on stepped feminists doms. That was the reason that Yugoslavfree their to constraints more even aware that the alternative would imply state,theinfighting withinengaged fullynotEast,were the thosein and West the in those unlike they, ism, social Yugoslav in gained women that ities. Precisely because of everything en’s issues than the socialist author š ak testifies in ------

Feminine in post-time and post-space tifies to these stories. And all these 11 stories have a firm basis. This basis is made up of shared values that gave them the strength and courage to op- pose, to seek peace in situations in which unleashed military, police and paramilitary units destroyed, burned, killed, and raped on a large scale. It was exactly in that situation, in which rebellion was life-threatening and rape was one of the favoured war activities, that, in unison, Yugoslav women shouted: “Enough”!

Aside from all historical and political reasons, they were impelled to do so by something that, at first glance, looked very simple. As Svetlana Slapšak testifies in this research, every day they had to think about other women, 24 hours a day. Their care for women in Vukovar, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Pri- jedor, Mostar, Pristina, Belgrade... was the first impulse that set them off. No matter how minimalistic it may sound, it is exactly the care for the ‘other’, for the female other, which destructs the essence of nationalism in its foundations, the nationalism that cares only about itself, and sees dan- on which crime isfounded. logic the contravenes others for care porters. To critically see oneself and sup their and warriors of logic the to opposes directly This Black. in en Wom of experience the and experience Mla responsibility of ‘their own’, as Lepa ger at the crimes of ‘their’ side, the contrary: feminists pointed their fin the on but crimes, nation’s other at victimhood while pointing their finger its asserted that nation own their to not But own’. ‘their to turned inists fem Yugoslav all, against all of war the In political. and personal both borders, the crossing meant sentially Vi Jelena as because, exactly duction, intro the in propose Jelena and ca Vjoll as movement, Yugoslav mained re movement feminist anti-war The a - alone woman. Let man. a human, be not founded on the idea that the enemy can is war since war, of logic basic the breaksthis allcompassionatebeing - someone,after lookinghelping, care, takingothers.Andenemiesin and ger š đ nji enovi ć says in the interview, it es it interview, the in says ć testifies from her anti-war ------

Feminine in post-time and post-space Finally, from the study by Jelena and 13 Vjollca, and from all the interviews, the question arises as to where anti-war feminism is today? Where is the feminine situated in this post-space and post-time that we live in? The answer to this question depends on how we perceive the situation in the countries today? As the study defines, we live in the state of a global permanent war, in a situation where a difference no longer exists between war and peace, which is the basic framework within which the authors of the introductory study think, or, perhaps, this situation is best defined by Svetlana Slapšak in her interview - as a state of emerging fascism.

In such a situation, the task of feminism is to fight for the emancipation by constantly recalling the crimes committed as ‘ground zero’ as ‘the question of all questions’, since without answering this question, it is impossible to move on. Feminism has a task of constantly re-examin- ing the responsibility and seeking activist and artistic responses that can prevent new evils, as Zana Hoxha strength tobecome theleaderitself. ership of larger movements, it has the movement that used to follow the lead a been having now, Perhaps sentence? final study’s the in proposed is it as humanity, and justice equality, of it could wage its battle for a society allies, without again once time, and of neither war state nor peace, the beyond spacein now, Perhaps anti-war? and activist Yugoslav, remained and it resisted calls of ethno-nationalism relying on its war experience in which enough to start this fight on its own, changes? Or maybe social it is alreadyfor strong fight should it which in with movement broader a to connected again thus, is, it whether and Left the on situated exclusively and ily necessar is feminism today’s is, it Dimitrijevi Olga by especially and interviews, the and A question is raised in both the study Sekuli Krasniqi, Blerta Zeqiri and Aleksandra ć advocated in their interviews. ć , whether being as as being whether , - - -

Feminine in post-time and post-space Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics

By Vjollca Krasniqi and Jelena Petrović impossible history and crises, and and dystopi and hope permanent finally, crises, and history impossible past, nostalgic and myths tionalist na the between struggle constant a and geopolitics by induced anxiety of space and societies, we enter the zone post-Yugoslav the about talk we When re-articulation. of need in positions subject ficult dif to also but future, emancipated politically a to leading imagination tices reveal various threads of social prac political women’s today’s and activism women’s of heritage the to relates that question the on search Re transition. and ethno-nationalism war, of structures political and cial so lager confront to resistance of strategies constituting experiences, proliferated through everyday personal cal friendships and feminist alliances politi how shows onwards 1990s the from activism women’s (post)Yugoslav cal from 1960s late the slogan feminist the Reversing Personal Introduction: PoliticalIs into Political is Personal is Political Personal is Politi is Personal

, the the , ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics an future. Today, post-Yugoslav space 17 does not only represent a geographi- cal, but also a political space, a social signifier of possible shifts towards consensual perceptions of plural meanings of the antagonized politics of belonging instrumental in building a common historical knowledge. Ina- bility to produce this knowledge on common grounds is a symptom of the war still being fought, yet by different means, be they administrative, nationalist, economic, or political. The initial question in this common process of producing historical knowledge about Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav space is whether we speak about a sin- gle war which indicated the end of the utopian era of socialism and erosion of the social state, or what we have here is a succession of nationalistic wars which, by means of post-WW2 nationalist dissident resistance and the 1990s transition, established the hegemonic system that exterminated people based on their nationality, religion, or other minority status, using the dominance in strength, weapons, population, and greed when it came to the post-socialist privatization with oliberal logic ofpermanent war. post-Yugoslav states today share a ne new that shows life everyday of tures struc corrupt and ethno-nationalist to break through ossified patriarchal, very own endless war. An impossibility their founded each Europe; of riphery pe Balkanized became merely states post-Yugoslav established newly all cialist, atomizing capitalism in which post-so global, the of demands eral neolib through society the of zation democrati so-called oncoming the of signifiers nationalist the overpower to inability the to due lost, war a cizing of the war(s). This was in fact histori common political and subjectivisation for need the neutralized have 1990s, the since generated been have which reconciliation, of courses dis and memory of Politics future. as its social imagination of the common ticulation of the shared past, as well ar political its lost Yugoslavia ist ocide, are the locations where social gen 1990s the and trauma war terror, destruction, tribulation, of Places rupt practices. cor through wealth of amassment its ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics Following the previous collaboration 19 and common work on these two important research issues Yugoslavia and feminism, as authors of this study, we would like to address the subject of war and peace in the post-Yugoslav space from the feminist perspective that would bring into focus some important political thoughts and actions. Accordingly, this research starts from political and personal engagements within Yugoslavia as a geopolitical space of discomfort. Additionally, the study will be accompanied by interviews with women activists, scholars, cultural workers and producers that from different temporal (before and after the 1990s) and spatial (Koso- vo and Serbia) perspectives reveal an on-going and common women’s struggle against entrenched oppressive, hegemonic, and patriarchal state structures shaped by a locally-specific juncture of nationalism and neoliberalism. Through positions of their own, Olga Dimitrijević, Zana Hoxha-Krasniqi, Lepa Mlađenović, Igballe Rogova, Al- eksandra Sekulić, Svetlana Slapšak, Jelena Višnjić, and Blerta Zeqiri speak about their present activities sistently, the main question which oc of social and political problems. Con diversifications new triggered space, post-Yugoslav the within malization nor and reconciliation prosecutions, crimes’ war of processes current and past The justice. as well as rights, human and social freedom, sense peace, the of relativize often very es discours (NGO) organizations’ mental non-govern and political, public, in pacifist, activist, and feminist terms of appropriation and language of Use for notions, meanings, and ideologies. struggle a always is there movements, anti-war and feminist women’s, within engagement social and responsibility political about question the Raising and FeministVocabulary (Im)Possible PacifistActivist state andsociety. neoliberal and nationalist conceptspatriarchal, of beyond future common a as about their feminist imagination of well as struggles, and errors shifts, present, through past women’s actions, and thoughts, about the history of the

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Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics cupied women’s movements and feminist 21 politics from the 1990s onwards was: How to build together an idea of peace and freedom with all this historical, political, social and economic burden of the war(s)? And further, how to deal with it today in the Age of Per- manent War?1

Two referential cases which challenged the impossibility to deal with these questions in a singular way, beyond two-folded or many-folded truths about conflicts, war, transition, normaliza- tion and reconciliation process, will be taken as paradigmatic for political thinking and activism within this ex- hausted geography of the post-Yugoslav space. The first case refers to the main question of the conference entitled, REDacting: TransYugoslav Femi- nisms: Women’s Heritage Revisited (Oc- tober 2011, Zagreb) that derived from the panel: What is Left of the Femi-

1 After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration declared a worldwide war on terror(ism) (under parole: either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists) involving new security discourses and legislation. The war on terror, or the permanent war becomes a new ideology of fear and re- pression, undermining peace and freedom. Yugoslavia. which contribute terms to understanding of basic the history of of wars in web the discussed and tackled also have they war, permanent and global current the of context the In war. of meaning the of conceptions contemporary regarding questions raised have lation trans the in engaged participants The students. and la mots: guerre des et la paix,” with“L’importance a group Lazaurs of artists, Sylvain scholars, by text 2 This platform was engaged in translation of the the of translation in engaged was platform This n beyond. and space post-Yugoslav the from groups translation different co-created and Group) Monument (The Spomenik Grupa Today? for project: lation trans collaborative of platform ory art-the the to refers one second The tice forall. cipatory politics of equality and jus eman the for base a represent would movement women’s unified the which in searching for a possible common future who discussed the past and the present inist theorists, activists and artists and political voices of prominent fem critical together brought conference er post-socialist European states. The oth and post-Yugoslav in art engaged socially and feminism, red activism, Left? nist with a focus on political political on focus a with (2010-2011) initiated by by initiated (2010-2011) 2 This translation pro What Does War Stand Stand War Does What ------

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics ject was performed and exposed for 23 the first time during the NGBK’s exhibition Spaceship Yugoslavia (Septem- ber 2011, Berlin). Dealing with the post-Yugoslav and other experiences of the war today, notions such as: nation, security, violence, war and peace interventions were discursively investigated in various forms (book, workshop, talks).

Thus, shifting between individual work and collective practices, these two paradigmatic cases reveal that many activists’ perspectives are based on de-colonial, feminist and materialist emancipatory knowledge, especially this one which introduces the politics of affects into the sphere of political thinking and social life, through performative voices, visual inscrip- tions, and public staging.

What is left of the feminist left?

During the panel discussion at the above-mentioned conference: What is left of the feminist left? Many questions were raised concerning leftist refers to a political movement which which movement political a to refers notion this Today, century. 20th the beginningof the workers’movement at enthusiasm of the self-organised women fiery the nor ideas social-political new the about neither speaks notion this that is fact The actuality. its ing what is supposed to already signify been arbitrarily ab/used in time construct some quite for has left” inist “fem of notion the reason, this For social reality. today’s the in notions these connects much nothing since feminism, and left the of underpinning ideological and theoretical, historical, the struct decon to today left feminist the of left is what question: the addressed panel the Therefore, before. was it cial emancipation, is more actual than so defined broadly more a of as well question of political and economic, as primary the since impetus, social sic ba the as appears discontinuities, and continuities its i.e. politics, feminist of question The space. slav post-Yugo the in perspectives and tersections between feminist movements in the and left feminist feminism, ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics has its own history and real-politics 25 behind, and different leftist currents that are gradually establishing themselves through contemporary economy, politics or academia, as well through the efforts made by supportive foundations, with their countless overlaps and fallacies. Occupying feminist positions within the emerging left and mobilization of women within it do not necessarily imply their emancipation, not in socio-economic, or any other sense, the fact which becomes glaringly obvious when studying the history of the left and leftist social transformations and achievements, especially if we bear in mind that in socialism, the symbolic role of pater was taken over by the party. Perpetuation of patriarchy in socialism was evident upon the introduction of women’s labour force in the labour market, which did not involve revolutionary transformation of domestic labour and patriarchal family patterns, resulting in women being doubly burdened – both with their professional tasks and their domestic chores, which subsequently influenced their active participation in political life. Today’s position of feminism on diachronic/historical development and developmentdiachronic/historical the 1990s – have to be viewed both as a indeveloped warand1980sduringthe triangle nation-class-gender during the sition – as shaped by the transitional historical fact and as a a political po as feminisms Yugoslav point no homogenous. at were intervention ical feminist schools and attempts at crit of position marginalised perpetually post-Yugoslav terms that emphasise to important is it this, on Reflecting economy ofeverydaylife. socio-political present the towards positions (re)articulated movements’ ing in the political demands for these heritage and (dis)continuity – result the in feminist the post-Yugoslavof context all above – today posed are “feministnotionleft”the ofmeaning theregarding queriesTherefore,many classlesssociety.a within women and mission: to ensure the equality of men versalism, which failed in its primary uni leftist alleged an of favour in at the point of its historical negation cannot therefore be the same as it was the left side of the political spectrum in the context of the the of context the in Yugoslav Yugoslav and and - - - -

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics synchronic/political action of common 27 feminist practices within the current process of “leftist” situating.

For post-Yugoslav feminism, the question of responsibility involved de- fining one’s position concerning the Yugoslav war(s) in the 1990s. Feminist movement of the time remained “Yu- goslav” in spite of the crucial anti-event which, shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, abolished Yugoslavia as a revolutionary political subject in favour of ethno-nationalist hegemony. At the same time, it can be said that Yugoslav feminism (as a singular movement) regrouped at this point into post-Yugoslav feminisms (as plural structures), proceeding predominantly in two directions, the academic and the activist and later also engaging in the fields of the cultural, juridical and administrative, as well as in other specific fields of civil society, acting predominantly as a corrective intervention into the politics of newly formed gender, national and class identities, by adopt- ing neoliberal strategies of social pacification. respect to the society and its so its and society the to respect with practice own its assessing ously simultane while – rearticulated be today feminism should words, other In intervention andsocial emancipation? political of practices sustained the to reassess its scope of action within suffice it would or left, the within nism should re-establish itself on and femi whether is arisen has that tion ques another collapse, economic an suffered had society” capitalist ic democrat into “transformation the once there return to only ownership, social of privatisation of processes the excessively turbulent and dramatic peared from the political stage during disap practically and transformation a underwent left the that mind in ing Keep reality? material and political the for responsibility the assume to the feminist in field and induce feminism intervention political a attempt actually indeed left the can ask: and emerged, practices feminist these when establish previously to portant im is it point, this at justified be would engagements liberal feminist post-Yugoslav of criticism Although ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics cio-economic turmoil – by posing rele- 29 vant demands and deploying new modes of action together with the so-called new left which has re-established itself in the post-Yugoslav space as the new social movements. If we consider the retrospective criticism of post-Yugo- slav feminism by today’s leftist perspective, and venture into its compre- hensive analysis, particularly taking into account the objection that feminism “came short” in the years of social transition, we must first face the illusion of the continuity of the left in undertaking collective action to preserve the social and the common in the political, as well as in the economic sense, foremost in the post-Yugoslav context.

In order to openly define the relation between feminism and the left, primarily in the emancipatory process of the formation of a political subject, and of an understanding of recent political history, one should point to the fact that neither feminism nor the left evinced any direct response to the changes in socio-economic system through the process of the wartime pri- ( resulting in a “waste of the workers’ life and health” Volume 1 the form of a “surplus population” of workers ( capitalism perpetually generates human accumulation in of the capitalist mode of production. Marx argues that approach, which examines humans-as-waste Marxistas a critiquebyproduct is based on population.Thea of level the thirdat threat a asas-waste political-economic humans- of constitution collective or individual the Mbembe’s on necropolitics (2003). The difference is in ben’s on Agam Giorgio (2003); racism state and biopolitics on writingsFoucault’s Michel on basedgenerally are es approach Biopolitical humiliated. and debased, down, thrownexpelled, being of process a asabjection and lia Kristeva (1982), relating to Ju theand meaning(1966) Douglas ofMary abjectof work the engage mostly (intervention). Symbolic approaches to humans-as-waste meansso-calledof socialpurification protectionand ger, redundancy, contamination that intois achieved through inscription theof pollution, dan Other by violent nomic. The first two approachespolitical-eco and bio-political, re/producesymbolic, to relate social that order waste” “human of meaning the of understandings 3 There are at least three theoretical cross-referential Capital, Volume 3 ous lives, human trafficking, these these trafficking, human lives, ous bare/precari of erasure the bodies, Husanovi mina Jas As society. transitional the for waste” “human of production the addressing directly and happening was what for responsibility the acknowledging war, its pacifist standpoint concerning the in persistent remained feminism that was difference crucial The 1990s. the during ownership social of vatisation

), and “squanders human beings, living labor,” homo sacer 3 that served as the foundation the as served that ). ć

and “bare life” (1998); and Achille has argued, “recycling argued, has Capital, ------Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics are some of the “difficult questions”, 31 the object/affect that overflows us once we unfold the stories and expose the political economies that surround us.” (Husanović, 2011: 49). This was the very reason that the emergent answer to the war – its concentration camps, ethnic cleansing, terror, genocide – at its outset and throughout, also included feminist anticipation of the transitional privatisation of the society, the red thread of the present political subjectivation, but also the production of critical discourse concerning the current socio-economic system. The political mobilisation of the left is largely made up as a rupture moment of the new “post-Yugo- slav” generations, for whom the war, as a point of political, as well as economic transformation, represents a blind spot. In the process of creating “new left perspectives”, it is logical to maintain that only the practices of self-criticism and self-reflection on one’s own blind spots can result in the creation of a politically engaged sociality. The politics of emancipation today can therefore be reflected on solely through the critical estab- the media was primarily focused on the speculative speculative the on focused primarily was media the of attention The point. this of example an as serve Revisited Heritage Women’s Feminisms: slav of feminists, theoryandpractice, artandactivism. contemporary demands by connecting various generations tive discussion of left feminist perspectivesproduc a for feminisms, Yugoslav on (auto)reflection and their which was to ensure the space for the criticism of and somewhat thwarted the event, the original intention of nism through personal biographies. This shiftfemi Yugoslav of of focus monumentalization a with combined conflicts, and merits, positions, personal of series a provided mostly which today, left name feminist the the of in speak to right the has who of question 4 The reactions to the conference sonal as well as political, as well as sonal litical actions on various levels, per criticising feminist practices of and po trend recent the Notwithstanding equate feminismandtheleft. would that one transformation, social of notion relational the of lishment for establishing leftist feminism to feminism leftist establishing for necessary truly act emancipatory an such Is post-war. and war the during critique of and reflection on feminism thorough a for reasons sufficient are there although emancipation, of itics an not pol a for point starting appropriate is 1990s the in feminism of criticism simplifying a that stress to important is it dynamics, feminist left new the of context the in larly

REDacting TransYugo REDacting 4 particu can also also can - - - - -

- - - Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics day if we know that it was precisely 33 the criticised feminist practices of the 1990s and early 2000s that gave rise to numerous feminists ready to respond from a leftist standpoint to the current socio-economic situation, in which women are often the most en- dangered party? And what would political significance of such an act be?

Feminism shaped by the civil society, which recognised gender as the basic category of social relations formed during the period of war and transition, was soon after the 1990s depo- liticised. As Nira Yuval-Davis pointed out nation, class and gender become the most important transitional rever- sals5 which globally forced the new age of identity. With regard to the notion of nation, constructed through an ethnic-nationalist discourse and its fla- gitious politics, feminism certainly succeeded in opening up space for its emancipatory politics in relation to the dominant nationalist discourses of the 1990s, opposing it by all available means. However, the question of

5 Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation, London: Sage, 1997. on research projects, resulted in the in resulted projects, research on work as well as groups, and izations organ feminist different of eration tervention and, above all, the prolif media. Various spheres of feminist in duction, art, and, to some extent, the pro cultural through sphere public the in visible became also but ies, stud women’s for centres and schools ily through the activities of feminist nism, which established itself primar femi of wave third the of emergence the enabled practice, and theory of questioning critical as well as edge, knowl of production the into vention inter at attempts time, same the At mainstreaming. gender of politics the into transformed part in was politics agencies for and gender equality, offices feminist national of channels al institution as well as ganisations Operating through non-governmental or gender mainstreaming. of paradigm the within politics der gen for demand the through primarily society, civil a building of question the by replaced was period post-war nied post-socialist transition and the accompa which diversification class ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics atomisation of the women’s movement 35 in the 1990s, and in a division into activist, academic, cultural and other practices which are nowadays being further differentiated, leaving very little common ground for joint action.

The creation of various post-Yugo- slav feminisms has affected social relations in diverse ways, but their different policies were not powerful enough to impose themselves as the basic or dominant force of political and social life. On the other hand, their political demands were not sufficient- ly consolidated to create a unified women’s movement, capable of bridging the artificial gap between activism and academia, theory and practice, equality and difference. It is this apparent lack that leads us today towards facing new turning points and voicing new feminist demands, which would acknowledge the necessity to create a unified feminist movement, while at the same time finding a way out of the vicious circle of criticising and rediscovering feminism in relation to the momentary flexibility of patriarchal relations and values. inter-feminist conflicts, above all, all, above conflicts, various of inter-feminist traumas the from selves tuality and to an attempt to free our ac its in feminism to return to need a is there view, of point this From uable heritageandexperiences. val of place the take work “pioneer” and exclusiveness own one’s of praise self- the let to avoiding time same the at while precisely), more it put ious feminist movements (or groups, to ories, and practices developed by var the schools, of analysis affirmative or critical a undertaking of capable the point of view of leftist feminism, of everyday life can be discussed from reproduction social and emancipation rary women’s zone, where the political tempo a be to intended is space This space. autonomous and an of creation the movements feminist and all women’s between connections synchronic and diachronic ascertaining of sity neces the on (auto)reflection an as well as past, recent the on flections establish a continuity of critical re to made is attempt an movement, en’s wom post-Yugoslav unique a initiate to (im)possibility the with Dealing ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics the inter-generational one, which is 37 always based on putting the past and present context on the same plane, and which appears to be paradigmatic in the history of the movement. In such a process, it is important to stop occupying the positions of the attacker and the victim because these positions are, after all, patriarchal ones. This, of course, leads us back to the political subjectivisation of feminism and the question of the politics of emancipation which needs to be built today. The starting point of feminism today must be a point of crossing between the present and the past, one that will generate emancipatory discourses and practices, but also one that will disable interruptions and the negation of continuity of the still unaccomplished social emancipation of women, as well as society on the whole. Concerning the feminist heritage and differences in the ways it is understood, it is necessary to reflect the history of these differences in order to reassess what we are actually still trying to define under the term feminist left, asking at the same time whether the left is the only 6 activists jointly discuss the ways in which the ide the which in ways the discuss jointly activists Spomenik/Monument Group where artists, theorists, and Mathemes of Re-Association entitled and genocide Srebrenica the cerning goslavia and the forensic project con work on subjugated knowledge The about Yu it. survived merely or way, any in war the with dealt who people the have so and work, its in participated cussion, and exhibition projects, have dis research, forensic, around ered gath members, guest and full group’s Tomi Milica artist by 2002 in founded was Spomenik Grupa wars. common monument dedicated to the 1990s a name and construct to impossibility the by triggered practices, formance per and exhibitions, discursive, ent theory group Grupa Spomenik in differ slavia have been dealt with by art and and emancipatory knowledge about Yugo The politics of memory, economy of war, What DoesWarStandforToday? the futureofwomen’smovements? and subjectivisation political ceive con to possible is it which in frame Mathemes of Re-Association of Mathemes is a project by Grupa Grupa by project a is ć , and the the and , ------6

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics brought up the question of “What Does 39 War Stand for Today?”, which in turn resulted in developing the already mentioned art and translation project of the same name.

The project What Does War Stand for Today? was established as a platform which in 2010-2011 gathered translation groups of artists, theoreticians, activists, academicians, cultural workers, and other actors interested in participating in the work of Gru- pa Spomenik in different locations: Prishtinë, Ljubljana, Maastricht, Za- greb, Tuzla, Belgrade, Mostar, Berlin. The basis of this collective art-theory work was the translation of a text by Catherine Hass, Qu’appell- t-on une guerre? Enquete sur Ie nom de guerre aujourd’hui (What is the Meaning of War? A Survey on the Name of War To- day?, 2010), using the method of teacher ignoramus, i.e., the absence of any kind of authority in the production of knowledge and without prior knowledge

ology of reconciliation works through forensic science to depoliticize genocide, with the genocide in Sre- brenica as the initial departure point. absence ofteacher intheeducational process. the Jacobin adept Jill Jacoto, which implies a by radicalinitiated revolution pedagogical the on based and alyst Branimir Stojanovi 7 The art-project methodology is proposed by psychoan by proposed is methodology art-project The of the source language. source the of hc w cl ps-uolv rm a from post-Yugoslav call we which space social-political this thinking of possibility the indicating cide, geno and crime, war, of context the litical awareness of Yugoslavia within po triggered Spomenik Grupa project, this Through war. the to pertaining ly subjectivising historical knowledge political and engaged, socially mon, com creating of locus a as conceived was thinking, collective and lation project, based on participatory trans This artistic, social, and theoretical and mainstream politics. slavia outside the existing narratives Yugo in wars the of history the ing understand in terms basic of network and resulted in the establishment of a Hass have raised a series of questions Catherine by text the in to referred ception of war and its current meaning con contemporary The war. permanent the 1990s wars, and subsequently on the translation produced a discussion about ć , a member of Grupa Spomenik, 7 Work on the the on Work ------

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics common perspective. Yet this proved to 41 be challenging, leaving open the space for potentially shared understanding of the past and the present.

Looking more broadly, two significant historical events, namely, the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, transformed the previously ideological East-West conflicts into a new one, structured on the political and libidinal economy of living and dying within the global neoliberal society and its war-state. Defined by force, violence, and fear, the war-state underlines that the major logic of dominance in the world today is the logic of war,8 which abus- es the meaning of freedom, democracy, and peace in order to protect the global system of neoliberal inequali- ty on many levels: social, political, economic, military, and others.9 Cath- erine Hass’s research on the question: What does war stand for today? tes-

8 Marina Gržinić, “From Biopolitics to Necropolitics and the Institution of Contemporary Art”, Pavilion, Journal for Politics and Culture, No.14, 2010, 59.

9 Jelena Petrović, “What Does Freedom Stand for To- day?” In: Border Thinking (ed. Marina Gržinić), Ber- lin: Stenberg Press and the Academy of Fine Arts Vi- enna. 2018, 112. 10 sertation, U Enquête See ical frame of the post-Yugoslav space post-Yugoslav the of frame ical geopolit global the became changes, climate catastrophic with along cism, fas raise and politics right-wing the of global inequalities, growing of chains violence, war and refugees migration, Inhuman power. of bution distri hegemonic the outside cation lo geographic any define to bility impossi an remained has there space, post-Yugoslav of history the as well as geopolitics the redefine to tempts at political or feminist many After fit intothismeaningofwartoday. wars 1990s the from inherited flicts is peace. Perpetual post-Yugoslav con that would determine its end, and that goal subjective political, intrinsic no is there because one, permanent a ingly, contemporary war is necessarily Accord anymore. exist doesn’t peace and war between differentiation the not not the achievement of peace, is emphasized, she as which, of pose its permanence and necessity, the pur war, of state current this to tifies

Catherine Hass, “ Hass, Catherine sur le niversité Paris 8, nom de guerre aujourd Qu ’ appelle-t- Paris,2001. ’ hui, 10 on une on because ”

Ph.D. dis guerre ------? Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics and contemporary neoliberal society in 43 general. Using different means of diversification – the old ones such as colonial, capitalist, and patriarchal mechanisms of social and geographi- cal (re)production and the new ones such as technological, scientific, and (techno)cultural methods of political and territorial identification it transpires that our global world has become a geopolitical space where the majority of people do not feel they belong. Freedom appears at this point as a fundamental and arbitrary notion of neoliberal society, a notion that justifies the state of war (consisting of all recent and actual political, economic, social crises) and through it develops further “liberal” interests and inequalities.

The actual means of democratic defense of humanity, such as military interventions, austerity measures, refugee policies, humanitarian aid, migration laws and human rights are discursively and ideologically based on the meaning of freedom. Those means (co) produce the neoliberal mechanisms of global governmentality, as well as the 11 speeches, interviews andtexts. public of collections of consists which book, vis’s The Meaning of Freedom such freedom is a permanent struggle— permanent a is freedom such world. contemporary our in structures power the of mechanisms repressive the ing resist and thinking, fighting, of years many so after posed feminists, and pacifists other many as well as This is the question that Angela Davis, What IstheMeaningofFreedom? politics. gender transformative for actions and ideas feminist many of subjectivity and responsibility about as well as practices, artistic and theoretical, political, of limits the about tions ques up opens freedom, political for struggle and resistance social of choice between legal and illegal means liberal concept of legality. The false neo the outside living and sistance thinking, education, organization, of re way critical any exclude freedom of horizons inverted Such terror. and conflict, crisis, of state permanent 11 In the most idealistic vein, vein, idealistic most the In is the title of Angela Da - - - -

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics this refers to the term of permanent 45 revolution, which is the basis of society emancipation and freedom gained through struggle/resistance/revolution—a radically different future, a fundamental social precondition for an emancipatory collective transformation beyond slavery, colonialism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, fascism and so forth. But freedom has at the same time, through substantial historical events and material (post)ideological transformations of state, become the most expensive word of the globalized neoliberal society.12 Today, the meaning of freedom is (ab)used as a fet- ishizing synonym for the law of those who have permanently established themselves within the neoliberal system of political and economic power. Envi- sioning revolutionary freedom through the larger collective claim for a new

12 Freedom: The Most Expensive Capitalist Word is the title of the theater play based on the authors’ research trip to the world’s most isolated country—North Korea. The two authors, Maja Pelević and Olga Dimi- trijević, question the idea of freedom in the era of ever-intensifying global surveillance and face the existing propaganda and dominant stereotypes of the North Korean totalitarian regime and Western neoliberal democracies. See http://festival.bitef.rs/event/ freedom-expensive-capitalist-word/. Meaning ofFreedom 13 ent activist, cultural, art and other and art cultural, activist, ent today’s state. The of singular meaning of differ mechanisms neo-colonial patriarchal, neoliberal, existing the imagine the and politics of freedom beyond conceptualise, actualise, which practices individual significant er oth and actions feminist and women’s post-Yugoslav discuss will study the together, questions these all Merging states: Kosovoand Serbia. post-Yugoslav two from feminism and pacifism practicing of examples ing follow the of some through generated perspectives about the 1990s war(s) is world wewanttochange.” the in embedded hierarchies the duce repro to tendency the resisting and and understand difference within unity see to able being “of process a is it words, other In becoming. of process a is freedom that reminds Davis tus, appara oppressive and regulative its structures of thepower neoliberal state andexisting the beyond complex community of conception emancipatory radical a requiring (unity), society Robin

D. G. Kelley, foreword to Angela Y. Davis, Davis, Y. Angela to foreword Kelley, G. D. , 14. 13

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Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics What does Women’s Activism 47 Mean? Between Collective Practices and Individual Work

Feminist and women’s engagements could be traced in numerous examples. This section presents six paradigmatic cases of socially engaged practices dealing with the topic of pacifism and anti-war politics at different levels of women’s collective action and individual work of women activists and artists. The two projects selected here speak of the collective activism of women. These are the Balkan Women for Peace14 and the Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia projects.15 To highlight the interplay between collective practices and individual work, the life story of Didara Djordjević, a woman leader during socialism in Koso- vo and Yugoslavia, is presented to em- phasize the temporality and continuity of women’s engagement in the public sphere. Moreover, here we expand on women’s activism by looking into a selected number of socially engaged art-

14 http://www.transeuropeennes.org

15 http://www.zenskisud.org/en/ 16 France. This was the first meeting of meeting first the was This France. took Royaumont, in Peace 1999, December in place for Women Balkan of ing the former Yugoslavia. The first meet NGO leaders and media from Albania and rights, women’s for activists demics, aca women of collective a was Peace the Gulf War, and the wars in the the in wars Yugoslavia. former the and War, Gulf the War, Cold the of end the after tions transforma political and social to response a as 1993-2005, from active Transeuropeanne the of out grew network Peace for en Wom Balkan the interaction”, stant con in but exclusive, mutually not are action and “theory that Positing Activists CrossingBorders Balkan WomenforPeace: turn. re in shaped is and politics ti-war an of practices and narratives the shapes activism women’s how discuss to is here aim main The meet. art and activism women’s where projects based See http://www.transeuropeennes.org project that had been had that project 16 Balkan Women for for Women Balkan ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics women after the end of the 1998-1999 49 Kosovo war. Situated within the larger frame of Transeuropeanne on cultural translation and critique of national identity-based exclusions and violence, the Royaumont meeting of Balkan Women for Peace addressed the issue of borders: physical, symbolic, psychological or any other kind which keeps communities apart. Thus, seeking to foster a culture of dialogue and critical thinking through gender and women’s perspectives on peace and reconciliation, the Royaumont meeting served as a platform for women’s collective organisation in the Balkans. The conference was entitled “Women Activists on Conflicts: a Democrat- ic Perspective for the Balkans.” The network was a unique political collective with a vision for peace and social justice in the Balkans. Balkan Women for Peace was an expression of resistance to nationalist discourses and deepening fragmentation and divisions in the Balkan societies. Fol- lowing the Royaumont meeting, women activists reconvened in April 2000 in Mavrovo, Former Socialist Republic of Macedonia, now North Macedonia. The 17 both visible and invisible community community invisible and visible both “overcoming at aimed Balkan Peace for Women Declaration, Mavrovo the in torial borders.” terri and symbolic both crossing and the public sphere and into visibility; into coming risks; those taking in er work of solidarity to support one oth ity and that of others; develop a net real own [their] facing of risks the assuming towards step necessary the as responsibility “individual edged acknowl activists women resistance”, of perspective a from and facing, are the various pressures that individuals as well as societies, Balkan between tion processes at work both within and 2000 “fragmenta the despite 30, that stated April on signed was which declaration, Mavrovo The action. for platforms as served also which tions, declara Mavrovo and Royaumont the in commitment and principles vision, their defined Peace for Women Balkan community pressure. Peace addressed for the question Women of facing Balkan of meeting Mavrovo The Mavrovo Declaration, 2000. 17 As further specified ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics pressures which are intimidating and 51 which deny individual choices; opening up space for others; refraining from judging the experience of others, the fear and the pain of the other being unquestionable; and building trust and recreating space for communication and movement.”18 Moreover, a set of specific actions were proposed that entailed “drawing upon local and region- al resources; border-crossing actions; peace and gender education within the NGOs networks of various countries; gender-sensitising of the electorate; educating women politicians for political action on the basis of the agreed charter; and any and all other actions which are civil tools opposed to armed communities (and including writing, learning, meeting, travelling, raising awareness).”19 In order to make visible the individual women activists of Balkan Women for Peace and signatories of the Mavrovo Declaration, we herein provide the full list of names:

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid. Natasa Kandi Spasijka Jovanova (Skopje) Edit Jankov(Novi Sad) Jovanka Ivkovi Rada Ivekovi Slavica Indzevska (Skopje) Merita Ilo(Tirana) Tanja Ignjatovi Meliha Hubi Milica Gudovi Brankica Grupkovi Anka Gogi Bojana Genov(MaliLosinj) Advije Gashi(Prishtina) Jagoda Gaji Rreze Duli(Prishtina) Aleksandra Dukovska(Skopje) Neli Dimc(Ljubljana) Koralja Dili Aida Diana Culi(Tirana) Antigona Bucaj(Prishtina) Eli Bojadzieska(Skopje) Sonja Biserko(Belgrade) Biljana Bejkova(Skopje) Mirjana Barbulovi Teuta Barbullushi(Tirana) Elsa Ballauri(Tirana) Nazlie Bala(Prishtina) Sevim Arbana(Tirana) Ć orovi ć -Miti ć ć ć ć ć (Zenica) (MaliLosinj) ć (NoviPazar) (Belgrade) (Paris) ć (Zagreb) ć (Belgrade) (BanjaLuka) ć ć (Belgrade) (Pozarevac) ć ć (Nis) (Belgrade)

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics Kosovare Kelmendi (Prishtina) 53 Katarina Kolozova (Skopje) Elife Krasniqi (Prishtina) Florina Krasniqi (Prishtina) Vjollca Krasniqi (Prishtina) Katarina Kruhonja (Osijek) Nada Ler Sofronić ((Sarajevo) Sandra Ljubinković (Belgrade) Iris Luarasi (Tirana) Natšsa Međedović (Nikic) Briseïda Mema (Tirana) Azbija Memedova (Skopje) Jadranka Milićević (Sarajevo) Lepa Mlađenović (Belgrade) Biserka Momcinović (Porec) Nazmie Pacolli (Skopje) Nela Pamuković (Zagreb) Milica Panić (Uzice) Žarana Papić (Belgrade) Erika Papp (Subotica) Borka Pavićević (Belgrade) Tanja Rener (Ljubljana) Valida Repovac (Sarajevo) Zibija Šarenkapić (Novi Pazar) Maria Savovska (Skopje) Arbnore Shehu (Prizren) Zana Shuterqi (Tirana) Svetlana Slapšak (Ljubljana) Sonja Stanić (Osijek) Mariana Stanković (Bijeljina) truth about the wars and responsibil and wars the about truth the light to bring reality, other’s an one with engage to were Caravan” Peace “Women’s the of objectives main The dreams. in existing those guages, lan communities, countries, arating sep those imaginary, or real lished, estab newly those and old Balkans: the in borders the cross to resolute 2002. Forty-seven women activists were which took place from 25 May to 9 June tion entitled “Women’s Peace Caravan,” practice through the in project interven set was commitment This eration. coop and communication inter-ethnic enable and borders and barriers come idarity and collective action to over Women for Peace set an example of sol Balkan declaration, the in quoted As Arlinda Zylali(Tetovo) Jasna Biljana Zekovi Jadranka Voji Gordana Vidovi Radojka Toma Milka Tadi Teodora Taba Sabina Stopin Ž ivkovi ć (Podgorica) š č ć č evi ki (Belgrade) š (Kraljevo) ć i ć ek (Ljubljana) (Podgorica) ć (Modrica) (Podgorica) ć (Split)

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Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics ity for war violence, and additionally 55 to support one another in struggles against the community pressures of every kind.20 The caravan visited women at “places of pain,” segregated communities, talked to women in the locations of hope and civic engagement, visited memorial sites, and engaged in conversations with policy makers. By crossing physical borders between states and communities from Slovenia to Albania, the “Women’s Peace Car- avan” showed the potential of women’s activism and politics, capable of bridging identities, memories, and justice, seeking for the promotion of peace in post-conflict societies.

Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia: Seeking Justice, Truth, and Active Remembering21

The wars in the former Yugoslavia—in the 1990s—caused destruction of lives, violence, pain and suffering on a large

20 http://www.transeuropeennes.org

21 This text was first published and it that can be found at https://www.zenskisud.org/en/pdf/Vjollca_ Krasniqi_eng.pdf. Women’s Movement(s) in the post the in Movement(s) Women’s Yugoslavia—comprising former the for Court Women’s The violence. without to healing, a precondition for a future elements, it may be argued, contribute these all And loss. and suffering of staging public and commemoration ing, remember entail they because but ple peo of number greater a involve they because only not too, significant are war. Restorative approaches to justice of wrongdoing with dealing in portant tribunals and war crime trials are im justice, retributive of mechanisms As the survivors’thirstforjustice. is it time; present the in trope only the not however, are, memory and War memory. in carried and selfhood their in present—embodied ever is property, of destruction and violence, sexual displacement, forced expulsion, cres, more, the memory of atrocities, massa many For past. the to belonging sode epi historical an as some by seen is Despite the human toll, such geography Yugoslavia. former the of communities different across men and women many of experience lived constituted wars scale. As geography of violence, these - Yugo ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics slav states (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 57 Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montene- gro, Serbia, and Slovenia)—was in 2015 in Sarajevo. It represented the first Women’s Court in Europe. It was a feminist intervention towards restorative justice. In this endeavor for justice and truth, the Women’s Court stood against forgetting the violence committed during the Yugoslav wars, which has been perpetuated by multiple criminal systems, with state and non-state actors acting against civilian population, especially women. The Women’s Court was about public consciousness, ethics and morality over human loss. The underlying political motive was to help ensure that the past would not be repeated. It sought to bring to light the link between the individual and the collective in the experience of war and violence; to problematize the risks entailed in transmitting trauma to the next generation, and last but not least, to stress the importance of remembering in order for such violence not to be repeated in the future.

Premised on the feminist conceptu- alizations of justice, responsibili- ing attentively, and often in tears tears in often and attentively, ing listen silence, in there stood who women of hundreds of audience an to spoke They stage. center took olence rajevo, the women survivors of war vi Sa in Centre Cultural Bosnian the at held was which Court, Women’s the At olence. vi ethnic and violence militaristic violence, economic violence, sexual civilians, against violence included of violence experienced by women. They fined themes, and concerning the forms de broadly five on panels of sisted con Court Women’s the of structure The women. from agency any away takes narrative is such conceived and when applied, it because victims, as women of metanarrative the opposed It vors. survi women about was Court Women’s the of politics the Hence, peace. for activism their and war to resistance as well as suffering, and pain during en their war, in induced injustice of experiences their stage could en wom where venue a was It heard. be to voices women’s for space public a provided Court Women’s the peace, ing last of foundations as care and ty ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics to hear what the women from places 59 such as Srebrenica, Drenica, Krusha e Madhe, Deçan, Vukovar, to mention just a few, remembered about the war violence they survived, family members they lost, their shattered lives and crushed hopes, but also their struggles for justice and strategies they deployed to reconstruct their lives. Women witnesses were not alone. They were joined by women activists and supported by women mediators of the Women’s Court who expressed solidarity and analyzed the broader social and political context of the wars in the former Yugoslavia in front of the panel of judges and the public.

More than 50 women spoke of their personal experiences of war and the violence they had lived through. The violence they described was more complex than that conceptualized in traditional justice. Their testimonies were individual, yet they pointed to the methods of violence that were institutional and part of a political economy of war and systems of crimi- nality encompassing multiple actors: state military and police forces, par- peace mustcontinue. more that the struggle for justice and Court, women witnesses made clear once Women’s the At justice. sought lessly tire they their Moreover, and communities. families, their of lives the lives, their rebuild to struggled against the cultures of impunity. They and remembering, active justice, for struggles their by outweighed was it but immense, were pain and loss the witnesses, women the for that showed testimonies of days Three gendered. was violence war how of understanding women’s survival and enhanced a plural of acknowledgement the to contributed it Moreover, communities. their and women of lives the on had it effects and truth the and war the of forgetting against justice, for tervention in an constituted Court Women’s The young men,andtheelderly. civilian populations: women, children, against primarily directed was it and engagement, of lines blurred with yet mafia, and mercenaries amilitaries, - -

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics Another Story on Women in Kosovo 61 under Socialism: The Grey Zone in Between

The history of the relations between Kosovo and Serbia during socialism, after the collapse of the socialist state, in the 1990s and after the 1998-1999 war, has left out social history in general, and women’s history in particular. History and the representations of events are gendered and women hardly make a foot- note. Interventions in history studies by feminist scholars have brought to the centre the social actors through oral history and biographical interviews, showing how macro systems and personal experiences of people col- lide and converge in everyday life. One such representation is the life story of Didara Đorđević from Prizren, who in the aftermath of WW2, in the new era of socialism in Kosovo, left the traditional way of life; became a teacher and embraced the emancipatory politics that socialism was granting at the time in the former socialist Yugoslavia and in Kosovo. tion and theLaw and Eastern Europe”, 24 23 22 Prizrenke Rada Ivekovi Rada See Julie Mertus, “Human Rights of Women in Central Miroslava Malesevi lived through this, as she resisted resisted she as this, through lived er paid industries and occupations. and industries paid er even low in segregated were women though market, labor to access women allowed states socialist The ization. education played a role in its modern and project modernist a was Socialism the right of personal choice.” personal of right the chy neither supported women’s word nor “patriar that expressed has Didara community. and family the from cluded archy even at the expense of being ex patri resisted women Yet structures. social the across entrenched strongly national duty. national and social as motherhood of trope the eliminate not did ideologies cialist so and state socialist the women, for emancipatory and egalitarian more deemed was socialism though Even ty. masculini and femininity of nitions defi binary on premised was market labour the into women of Integration , Ravenna:Longo,2002. , Beograd: Srpski Genealo , Vol.6.No.2(1998), 369–484. ć and Julie Mostov, Julie and Journal of Gender, Social Policy 23 ć Patriarchy remained remained Patriarchy , Didara: š Ž ki Centar, 2004, 65. ivotna prica jedne jedne prica ivotna From Gender to Na to Gender From 24 She She 22 ------

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics the frames and borders which limit- 63 ed her space for finding a voice and her freedom of choice. Her life story testifies to women’s emancipation in the socialist era, offering a win- dow into women’s everyday experiences. Furthermore, it enables an understanding of multifaceted yet temporal gender relations in Kosovo after WW2. Didara’ story is about the liberation of a woman and her personal resistance to the symbolic and material borders sustained by the national ideologies, religion, and cultural formations. Moreover, it tells of a new women’s subjectivity that was gaining ground in Kosovo during socialism. As Elife Krasniqi has argued, Didara offered a counter narrative of “a period when everything was divided along ethnic lines, and everything would be sim- plified in ‘black and white’ terms, while Didara’s narrative showed the grey zone in between.”25

25 Elife Krasniqi, “Didarja: Një Rrëfim i Munguar” [Didara: A Missing Narrative]. Retrieved from https:// kosovotwopointzero.com/didarja-nje-rrefim-i-munguar. oralhistorykosovo.org/saranda-bogujevci/ 26 See the oral history of Saranda Bogujevci at http:// at Bogujevci Saranda of history oral the See ly during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. Kosovo 1998-1999 the during ly fami her of survival and loss the of jevci: Visual History” tells the story Saranda Bogujevci’s peace-building. of limits and reconciliation failed also but crimes, its and war tioning ques with engage and political, are Tomi Bogujevci, by here selected interventions art three The ethics. and memory, justice, post-war nationalism, war, of themes the upon touching engagement, political as art of intersections the at constituted Tomi Milica Bogujevci, Saranda artists: en wom three by work the showcases tion sec This rights. human and justice nationalism, war, address to art ing Serbia engag role, important an played and have Kosovo in artists Women in KosovoandSerbia Individual WorkbyWomenArtists Art asActivism: narrative of the war crimes committed crimes war the of narrative personal the depicts project art The ć and Flaka Haliti. Their work is work Their Haliti. Flaka and art project “Bogu project art ć and Haliti Haliti and 26 ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics against her family, when 14 members of 65 the Bogujevci family were killed by the paramilitary group of Skorpioni, while five children, including Saran- da, who at that time was 13, Jehona (11) and Fatos (12), who also participated in the exhibition as artists, survived. This is a story of personal tragedy and family loss in the war, where the author communicates personal narration of her experience and survival. This work pays homage to civilian war casualties and creates a venue for seeking justice, while it also proves that justice can be met. This exhibition caused great commotion in Belgrade, resulting in violence and the forced closing of the exhibition.

The art intervention entitled XY The Reconstruction of the Crime: Challeng- ing Amnesia, by Milica Tomić, engages with the politics of memory. It problematizes amnesia by questioning the paranoiac spaces surrounding national identity and maintained by nationalist ideologies and sentiments. As a critique of nationalism and the ex- clusionary project of the nation, it seeks to build an ethical subject that ical to use the victims as a concept concept a as victims the use to ical vo War, Flaka Haliti asks: “is it eth missing persons of the 1998-1999 Koso and victims the on Focusing projects. art in violence war of victims the of representation of ethics the cerning Dinner er’s Haliti’s Flaka agency. for space up opening thus and bility, visi political and justice seeking memory, active on centers art Tomic’s Milica justice. of possibility a fers makes war crimes visible and hence of memory as remembrance fail cannot art Tomi Milica For memory. challenge sociality which reside in oblivion and Tomi Milica categories. identity sionary exclu destabilizes work This life. everyday and art in level, tutional insti on discourse, political the in reconciliation term the of plural meanings and usage the problematizes and collective amnesia.nation This of work also critique a indeed is xenophobia. This and Other, the of fear oblivion, war, question to order in remembrance, and memory of capable is ć ’s work tears apart the zones of zones the apart tears work ’s poses the question con work Our Death, Oth Death, Our ć ------,

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics for an art piece, and where is the 67 border for such an abuse in this case and other cases in art work?” This is an important intervention highlighting the risks of political appropriation of the victims’ experiences in the service of political narratives. This work critiques the national narratives of victimhood that are themed on identity, emotions, and culture. Evoking the “our death, other’s dinner” metaphor, Flaka Haliti directs the artists and audiences to the stories that victims themselves construct about their own life, thus searching for new means to avoid the risks of (re)victimization in/through art interventions. Moreover, Flaka Haliti’s work destabilizes the trope of victims beyond art, in politics, as well as in the media.

Narrating Women’s Activism in Kosovo and Serbia

Feminist research is about the sto- rytelling of collected events, narratives, and memories. It is also about the acknowledgment of the ways disintegration and partition influ partition and disintegration Yugoslav of wars the how reflect to pointed out, feminists “were the first Dubravka As tifications. iden feminist and movement feminist the shaped and imprint lasting a had Yugoslavia former in war(s) 1990 The the 1990sandonwards. in mobilization women’s of patterns it has resonated across narratives and ory, and politics—and to show the ways relations of feminism—as an idea, the spatial and temporal of fluidity ical histor the highlight to seeking tion interven an is it Instead, present. and past the in Serbia, and Kosovo in movement women’s the and feminism of historiography a reconstruct to tempt at an not is however, study, This ones. preceding the of memories and eration, it is also about the legacies gen her of politics everyday the in embedded practices and texts the with heard, and experienced. While engaging witnessed, has one interventions nist femi all to attention bring sarily neces not does time across nism(s) femi study To time. present the of history the shaped have they which in Ž arkov has has arkov ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics enced their identities and what the 69 wars meant for them personally, and for their activism.”27 War as a physical and emotional experience is gendered. The gendered conflict has an enormous and lasting impact on women’s agency and identities. The “master narratives” of the Yugoslav conflicts have rendered marginal women’s agency and resistance against war and nationalism. Indeed, the feminist organizing against war in post-Yugoslav spaces has remained an uncharted terrain. Therefore, the critique of the gendered narratives of Yugoslav wars offers possibilities for accounting for women’s agency across national divides and the continuing feminist solidarity in the present. Mapping women’s mobilization and political activism destabilizes gendered narratives and the sidelining of women in the historical accounts of socialism, post-socialism, war and post-war. Viewing feminist post-Yugoslav spaces as expressions of difference and diversity, we thus also seek to acknowledge and make visible

27 Dubravka Žarkov, “Feminism and the Disintegration of Yugoslavia: On the Politics of Gender and Ethnicity,” Social Development Issues, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2003), 3. 28 Benderlyquoted in and the potentiality of grounded fem grounded of potentiality the and challenges, complexities, its in cy agen women’s understand to seek We Benderly hasargued Jill As nationalism. and war against resistance shape did feminism spaces, post-Yugoslav In internationally. and spaces post-Yugoslav in women between connections forging moments, and ways various in expressed been has agency Women’s groups. feminist across ities solidar and linkages civic of forms complex entail did war against ance post-Yugoslav spaces. In fact, resist companied the women’s movements across national identity between and women’s solidarity has ac relationship The transnational gendertransformations. for potentialities and solidarities come nationalizedby1991. be degrees, varying to had, ments move other most when period in the movement social unique fairly a feminism made identity national Women’s solidarity above and beyond Ž arkov 2003, 2. 28

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Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics inist struggles during the war. We 71 hence propose to situate knowledge in the specific practices that speak about women’s solidarity and break- ing of boundaries: physical, symbolic, emotional, and imaginary. To this ef- fect, we looked at the refugee camps in Macedonia during the Kosovo war. The refugee camps were not singled out as spaces for women’s organizing and solidarity. The refugee camps offer a site to read the spatio-temporal dynamics of women’s agency. Moreover, feminist women’s solidarity during the war stand against the recurring themes and renditions of the gendered narratives of war and nationalism in the post-Yugoslav spaces.

We deploy the camp as a paradigm of the human condition, of bare life, or, to borrow the trope from Giorgio Agam- ben, of homo sacer – a product of sovereign power. We contend that not only the refugee camp as a particular con- finement in space and time, but space in general carries political meanings and potential for agency. The refugee camps in Macedonia in 1999 opened up new possibilities and potentialities Gender StudiesCentre, 2008, 149. inë: Kosovar Gender Studies Centre. Prishtinë: Kosovar 190. of Freedom 30 29 Nicole Fransworth, Fransworth, Nicole David Harvey, define women’s spaces as liminal and and liminal as spaces women’s define out, “some narratives on women clearly Slap Svetlana As ders. bor and boundaries transforms that agency empowered historically an of making the about camps speaks Macedonia in refugee the and war of times processes that create, sustain and and dissolve them.” sustain create, that processes relational the on contingent always … are “places argues Harvey David As work inrefugeecamps.” support from other through activists and their activists as identity their reclaimed activists “many time, this nitions of women activists’ selves. At defi and identity relational ticular par a created camps the in ganizing or and experience refugee Moreover, empowerment. and solidarity of raphy refugee geog a on built women Kosovar camps, the In agency. women’s for , New York: Columbia University Press, 2009, Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies Geographies the and Cosmopolitanism 30 History Is Herstory Too Women’s agency in the š 29 ak has pointed has ak , Prisht - - - - -

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics peripheral.”31 In fact, in the refu- 73 gee camps women activists created safe spaces so that women refugees could share their experiences and find support from other women.32

Feminists in Belgrade extended solidarity to Kosovar women. During the NATO air campaign, they embarked on documenting the feelings of fear “of women in Prishtina and other parts from Kosovo living under extreme fear, terror and pain.”33 They called women in Kosovo and followed that up with vis- its to Kosovo Albanian women who had become refugees in Macedonia. In the refugee camps in Macedonia they sought to bear witness to what the women had experienced. Solidarity was an important concept in the feminist activism across the post-Yugoslav space. Draw- ing on the definition of feminism as a political project aiming to do away

31 Svetlana Slapšak, “Theorizing Women’s Mobility in the Balkans,” in Gender and Identity: Theories from and/or on Southeastern Europe, Belgrade: Women’s Stud- ies and Gender Research Center, 2006.

32 Fransworth, 2008, 155.

33 Žarana Papić, “Kosovo War, Feminist Politics and Fascism in Serbia,” Belgrade: Women’s Studies Centre, 1999. 34 zenske-solidarnosti vijesti/aktivnosti-mreze/lepa-mladjenovic-politika- at available Solidarity], vi Mladjeno Lepa See Krasniqi. Vjollca by is English Translation of the quote from Serbian language into idarity that seeks to validate each each validate to seeks that idarity sol entails This difference. and/or similarity of expression an not and process political a is Other the with nance of borders. To be sure, engaging omies that foster divisions and suste transform thinking and effective econ to seeking “side” other the on women the in interest active an nurture to aims definition This instance. this in solidarity the of is characteristic main recognition Intersubjective idarity asanactthat Mladjenovi Lepa power, of relations hierarchical with ć , Politika that the other woman also matters. and myself to matter I That uable. rience of any woman is equally val entails my agreeing that every expe That me. to it narrates she as out perience, to allow her story to get ex her hear to Other, the to ten is resumed with the decision to lis Ž enske Solidarnosti [Women›s Politics of . ć defines women’s sol women’s defines http://www.mreza-mira.net/ 34 ------

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics woman’s experience and undo gendered, 75 ethnicized and racialized hierarchies. Solidarity is a political act. The un- doing of hierarchies allows women’s agency and possibilities for transformative politics towards justice. This brings home the plea made by Chandra Talpade Mohanty for “politics of engagement rather than politics of transcendence.”35

Women’s solidarity during the Kosovo 1998-1999 war also testifies to the tension between the difference and diversity paradigm in the feminist theo- rization. While the difference paradigm aims to “put women in the centre,” the diversity paradigm in contrast seeks to “deconstruct centres.” Yet, paying attention to gender differences does not juxtapose those differences as a marker of inferiority but of equality and mutual process of subject constitution. This is a significant complexity of subjectivity and political agency. Solidarity across difference is also an ethical relationship within an as-

35 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. Mestiza, 37 36 Sylvia Walby, Walby, Sylvia Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Anzaldúa, E. Gloria ical solidarity has been born out of of out born been has solidarity ical polit This identifications. activist feminist the affected had they how of examinations also but experiences of of war, entailed not only descriptions face face-to as such boundaries, beyond dialogues a, cie b Goi Anzaldúa, Gloria by coined zas,” “mesti of notion the to Similarly, across national difference. encountersprocessof a extends toit Yet feelings. with begin may darity soli Indeed, collective. “we” sumed of meaning.” of between actors during the construction the sequencing of actions in relations and temporality of significance “the highlight to important is it Hence, equal to a witness as political actor. is Other the of pain the of witness a as activist An boundaries. undo who activists women self-identified the through it recasting whilst division, as border the of symbol the used have spaces post-Yugoslav the in feminists San Francisco, CA: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987. Crises encounters in the midst midst the in encounters 37 Spatial relations and and relations Spatial , Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017, 17. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New 36 - - -

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics the process of negotiating the poli- 77 tics of difference. As such it enables an understanding of how difference in- tersects with assertions of women’s feminist and activist identity.

Locating women’s agency through reflections on difference is important for transformative feminist politics and the future of women activism. Feminist solidarity in the post-Yugoslav space attests to this. Women activists’ experiences were accompanied by reflections on the notions of difference that shaped feminist solidarity locally and regionally. The domain of women’s agency was complex and existed across different sites of groups and collectives within the emerging civil society in the post-Yugoslav space. Highlighting the difference across that stream of activist groups, Lepa Mlađenović has maintained the major “difference between human rights NGOs and feminist NGOs was that feminists insisted on ethics of difference.”38

38 Lepa Mladjenović, “Notes of a Feminist Lesbian during Wartime,” European Women’s Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3, (2001), 386. and Zagreb in the 1990s 39 Ana Mi nic and state demarcation lines.” ation across the newly established eth markedly daring continuation of cooper ‘crossing the lines’, accentuated their ing of ‘transgression of boundaries’ speak or“by feminists out, pointed has Mi Ana As ideologies. dered difference within the nationalist the hierarchical restructuring of gen opposing also but locating only not politics. Feminist solidarity entailed culture,body,andthe effects onits and wars’ gendered practice, war of as wellmemories and as histories tional opposi for site a constituted tainly Women’s agency during wartime has cer Talpade Mohanty that the Chandrabymadepoint thedrives home ing the war in the post-Yugoslav space dur solidarity Feminist best. its at agency political of expression an is ity; it is something that has to be of a natural/psychological commonal derstood not as unity of women as women is best un š kovska Kajevska, kovska , New York: Routledge, 2017, 8. given Feminism at War: Belgrade Belgrade War: at Feminism š kovska Kajevskakovska , on the basis 39 This ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics worked for, struggled towards — in 79 history.40

Final Note for a Common Emancipatory Future

Over the past decades in the post-Yugo- slav era, especially at the end of the 20th and in the first two decades of the 21st century, a proliferation of work on feminism and gender has been no- ticeable and expressed in numerous and various women’s actions, knowledge and cultural production shaped by the politics of resistance and emancipation. Yet, specific to the area of post-Yugo- slav society was the treatment in each separate country of women’s movements and organisations, which has tended to neglect this area as a knot of nostal- gia and loss, and therefore at the same time the knot of potential for questioning the criteria of plausibility of the dominant ethno-centric, post-transitional/neoliberal and patriarchal

40 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Feminist Encounter: Locat- ing the Politics of Experience” in Anne Phillips, Fem- inism and Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, 264. Novel research in the field that that field the social of in politics the between shifts research Novel direction forthefuture. common a importantly, more and ble, equita more a in change social drive in search for emancipatory models that tive politics around common issues and transforma socially and cultural as that foster critical knowledge as well actions women’s and feminist engaged productively the of potential the in itself presents opportunity an ture would be that at this historical junc geo-political map of today? The answer its onYugoslavia,abolishment andof periods of existence, destruction, and change and knowledge production in the social in participated and reflected has engagement feminist and women’s extent what to of question the into This study has aimed to offer insights of transformative politics. outcomethe relationtoguaranties in no offering while stance, conformist and prejudice entrenched the disturb Feminist, women’s and gender questions discomfort.of geopoliticalzonetled unset continuing this in ideologies - - - -

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics movement and the politics of cultural 81 and knowledge production offers a vision that aims to go beyond the state of disappointment and despair, which many feminist activists, actors, cultural workers and scholars have felt after the wars of the 1990s. In this vision, affective networks of personal relationships continue to have a prominent role in finding alternative routes for discussing emancipatory politics in feminist action, theory and social critique. These personal relationships do not in any way build a secluded safe-haven, but rather give an impetus for developing more collaborative ways of thinking and fostering new strategies of resistance, against the sophisticated neoliberal ways of perpetuating patriarchy, conflicts, crises and other hegemonic mechanisms that maintain unequal power relations intact. These personal activist relationships are also ‘epistemological cells’, mobile and technologically savvy, generated through the politics of friendship and critical thinking.

A series of interviews with women who are politically, culturally, socially it is also obvious that women of so of women that obvious also is it dom and social justice. From the past, the free of thread have red ideological same that – current and past – feminismsdifferent withcontinuities needs space post-Yugoslav the within cial analysis of the history so of a presentthat obvious becomes it Thus, society, classless and equal for all. ly,economically, culturally liberated political socially, a clear: is goal the them, of all For solidarity. and and struggle for emancipation, freedom, work, and actions, it is worth to live they are faced with in their own lives, haveshown that despite the challenges women struggles,all achievementsand questions,women’s and feminist ating Situ specificities. local in rooted practiceandtheory creatingboth for platform a offer and politics alist multicultur of stance depoliticizing the resist they such, across As difference. solidarities and cificities spe local the of aware us making yet maintain build a they positions The positions. ferent dif their into insights valuable fers engaged in the post-Yugoslav space, of feminist feminist common ground ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics cialist times benefited the most from 83 all women’s engagements and struggles, but unfortunately not for long. All those activist, cultural, theoretical reflections on the emancipatory politics of concrete material practices, as well as all the socially aware feminist claims, must today be linked to other, similar practices, either local or international, in order to confront the current neoliberal appropriation of feminism and its movements, which gives the image of a false reality in which women have free will to choose the way they want to live. At the same time, this promising image hides the rise in violence on every scale: struc- tural, domestic, sexual, and symbolic.

Relying on the analytic resources provided by current socio-political studies on transformative politics and examples of cultural and gender studies, this research points to some valuable notes about the socially engaged women’s actions and political feminist strategies, which insist on the politics of equality and engage towards shared socio-political and cultural imaginaries. Broadly speaking, this alism: AReader 42 41 Press. Clarendon Oxford, Reading, Dissident of Politics the Alan Sinfield, Sinfield, Alan Kiernan Ryan, Kiernan and grounded stance towards singular singular towards stance grounded and ratives and stands for a more specific nar past those all beyond goes today All in all, the common women’s struggle its legitimation of the status quo.” in faultiness the widen and deepen to pose the guilty political unconscious, the ex to disenfranchised, the of voices amplify “to grain, the against past the read to was here intention the results, and experience research tion. Moreover, guided by the previous cursive analysis and subject redefini dis commitment, political theoretical grounding, and context historical the to attention pays that critique feminist materialist a adopted study negotiation, andresistance.” incorporation, of relations varying in dominant, the alongside forces al cultur oppositional and alternative, emergent, residual, subordinate, of co-occurrence “the of examination the tique lies in its ability to assist in cri materialist a such of value The 1992,9. . London,Arnold.,1996, XV. New Historicism and Cultural Materi Cultural and Historicism New Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and 42

41 ------

- Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics subjectivities that are collective- 85 ly bound and outward oriented by the concept of “sustainability”. Following Rosi Braidotti, we conclude by arguing for a re-grounding of the subject in a materially embedded sense of responsibility and ethical accountability for society and environment, based on previous knowledge and experiences of post-Yugoslav feminists. Thus, in the redefinition of the political subject, sustainable shifts or changes emerge by nomadic subjects in their active resistance against the risk of being sub- sumed in the commodification of their very own diversity. It is within this concept of “becoming’ that “time frame is always the future anterior, that is to say a linkage across present and past in the act of constructing and ac- tualising possible futures.”43 And our future, as all those who participated through interviews and conversations in this study agreed, leans towards the feminist idea of a common, socially equal and just society.

43 Rosi Braidotti, Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity, 2006, 137.

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Short Biographies of the Authors The Cultural Politics of the Milo Evil: of Banality the on Report other Europe bolic Nation-Building in South Eastern Nation in Kosovo in the of Construction the of Topography ited by K. Bachmann et al. (2018); The The Impact on Institutional Reform Change: Domestic of Actors as bunals in Kosovo in Justice and Law, War, (2019); al. Media Frames tors of Domestic Change: The Impact on Ac as Tribunals Criminal ternational in Trials Haradinaj the during vo Media and Political Discourse in Koso War: Just of Frames including: sues, book chapters and reports on these is articles, numerous published has She reconstruction. post-war and building lective memory, state-building, peace col and nation gender, are interests research Her Prishtina. of University the from Sociology and Philosophy in degree BA a and (LSE), Science ical Polit and Economics of School London Development and Gender, Globalization in from the degree of MSc an Ljubljana, University the from PhD a holds She Prishtina. of University losophy, Phi of Faculty the at teaches She Dr. Vjollca Krasniqi edited by P. Kolsto (2014); An (2014); Kolsto P. by edited International Criminal Tri Criminal International , edited by K. Bachmann et Strategies of Sym is a sociologist. š evi ed In ć ------

Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics Trial in Kosovo, in The Milošević Tri- 95 al: An Autopsy edited by T. Waters (2013); and Imagery, Gender and Pow- er: The Politics of Representation in Post-War Kosova in Feminist Review (2007).

Dr. Jelena Petrović is a feminist scholar, art theorist and author. She is the research leader (PI) of the project: Art Geographies: The Politics of Belonging at the Institute of Art Theory and Cultural Studies, Acade- my of Fine Arts, Vienna (funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF through the Elise Richter Program 2019-2023). (Co)author of texts, events, exhibitions and projects related to (post) Yugoslav subjects – particularly with regard to social history, art-theory and feminism. She holds a PhD form ISH-Ljubljana Graduate School for Hu- manities (2009). From 2008 to 2014 she was an active member of the new Yugo- slav art-theory group Grupa Spomenik (The Monument Group). In 2011 she became co-founder and member of the feminist curatorial collective Red Min(e) d (www.redmined.org). As an initiator of the course Living Archive: Feminist Curatorship and Contemporary Artistic Practices she taught at the Academy of education. and culture of fields in Nations ed Unit the of rights human for porteur Rap Special the of consultant a is She Serbia. in women of history the and modernization, of process the ry, histo social textbooks, Serbian new in history of interpretations ries, centu 20th early and 19th late the in Balkans the in and Serbia in racy grade. Bel of University the at History al Gener Contemporary of Chair History, an Stojanovi Dubravka Dr. tics ofLoveandStruggle ship in Interwar Yugoslavia: The Poli lan published her book Macmil Palgrave Vienna. Arts Fine of Academy at Histories Art European ern East South and Central for Professor Endowed the appointed was she 2017, to 2015 From (2014-2017). Ljubljana of University Design, and Arts Fine lan Ristovi Mi With etc. Copenhagen Sofia, ens, Ath Sarajevo, Zagreb, Ljubljana, of University University, Humbolt sity, Univer Stanford University, lumbia Co Sorbonne, at lectures gave and abroad and country the in conferences

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, she is the editor of the She participated in many many in participated She ć Women’s Author

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Notes on Post-Yugoslav Women’s Activism and Feminist Politics Annual for Social History. She is a 97 vice president of the Balkan Committee for Education in the field of history organized by the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South East Eu- rope, Thessaloniki, Greece. She published 9 books, including the book on world history: The rise of the Global World 1885-2015. For the book Serbia and Democracy: 1903-1914 she received the City of Belgrade’s Award for So- cial Sciences and Humanities for 2003. In 2011, the Center for Peace and De- mocracy Development awarded her the Peace Prize, for her peace engagement started in 1993, during the war in the former Yugoslavia. In 2012, she received the price Winning of Freedom intended for women engaged in human rights activism. She has received the French decoration Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.

NOTES ON POST-YUGOSLAV WOMEN’S ACTIVISM AND FEMINIST POLITICS

Publisher: The Jelena Šantić Foundation 11a Vojvode Šupljikca Street 11000 Belgrade, Serbia www.fjs.org.rs

For publisher: Irina Ljubić

Introduction text: Dubravka Stojanović

Authors of the study: Vjollca Krasniqi and Jelena Petrović

Design and layout: Jana Oršolić

Translation and proofreading: Nataša Grba Singh, Tijana Parezanović and Milan Marković

ISBN 978-86-81592-02-1

This document is part of the project ”Heroines of Peace - Tales outside the bargaining table”, which is financially supported by the Balkan Trust for Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The opinions expressed in this publication do not represent the views of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, or their partners.