Images of women in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and neighboring countries, 1992 - 1995

Abstract

Images of women, especially as portrayed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and neighboring countries, reflect ethnonational politics and ideologies prevalent at the time. This chapter begins by tracing the status and roles of Balkan women in public life, starting in 1946-the year in which they obtained suffrage. The first section provides a sociopolitical context, describing how women's rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina were framed by predominant images of "worker," "proletarian," and respectable "Communist." It should be noted that " motherhood" remained the predominant image by which the socialist egalitarian facade identified, repressed, and veiled the female population. The second section covers the period of war (1992-1995) and the role of ethnonational ideologies in building new images of women, such as "Mother of the Nation," "[Mother of the] Homeland," "National Heroine," "Pride of the Nation," and "Ethic Paradigm" (i.e., woman as safeguard of ethnonational honor). The third section deals with gender-based violence, in particular rape and other forms of sexual abuse, which proved highly successful in literally destroying women's bodies and figuratively destroying the "bodies" of nationstates. Gender-based violence effectively transformed the image of women from "the Nation's Pride" to "the Nation's Shame.". © 2010 by University of Texas Press. All rights reserved.