The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
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<strong>and</strong> intellectual elites who led the conflict <strong>and</strong> who dug the remains <strong>of</strong><br />
the dead <strong>of</strong> earlier wars out <strong>of</strong> their graves, so as <strong>to</strong> drive more people<br />
in<strong>to</strong> the abyss. <strong>The</strong> numerous attempts by initiatives <strong>and</strong> individuals,<br />
clergymen, mothers, pr<strong>of</strong>essors or artists, who tried <strong>to</strong> prevent the war<br />
by meetings, conferences <strong>and</strong> large demonstrations, were disregarded.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir behaviour before, during <strong>and</strong> after the war is the link <strong>to</strong> the process<br />
<strong>of</strong> peace <strong>and</strong> reconciliation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> disintegration resulted from the interplay <strong>of</strong> various internal fac<strong>to</strong>rs<br />
at the moment when Yugoslavia no longer felt threatened from the outside<br />
– <strong>and</strong> indeed was not. <strong>The</strong> collapse came when the country’s own<br />
politicians were no longer able <strong>to</strong> turn the wheel around <strong>and</strong> lead the<br />
country out <strong>of</strong> the crisis peacefully. Like the people, they thought they<br />
were part <strong>of</strong> the modern <strong>and</strong> developed, civilized world, <strong>and</strong> hoped for<br />
foreign assistance in the economic <strong>and</strong> political crisis. <strong>The</strong> help didn’t<br />
come, or it came <strong>to</strong>o late, when the armed power struggle was already<br />
being waged.<br />
Yugoslavia was possible only as a homogeneous, liberal state, not as a<br />
community sufficient un<strong>to</strong> itself, but as space in which the national differences<br />
are considered an enrichment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> equal rights <strong>of</strong> women<br />
<strong>The</strong> fact that some two million women had supported the people’s war<br />
<strong>of</strong> liberation, <strong>and</strong> that 110,000 <strong>of</strong> them had fought as partisans, ensured<br />
them the right <strong>to</strong> vote in 1945, <strong>and</strong> the constitutional guarantee <strong>of</strong> equal<br />
rights. At their first congress in 1944, the Yugoslav women had founded<br />
their organization, the Antifascist <strong>Women</strong>’s Front. After the war, edu cated<br />
women organized literacy classes, health <strong>and</strong> political education, cul tural<br />
programmes <strong>and</strong> social assistance for the population in the whole country.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y helped clear the rubble, <strong>and</strong> participated in the large-scale work<br />
campaigns <strong>to</strong> build housing <strong>and</strong> infrastructure. <strong>The</strong> Antifascist <strong>Women</strong>’s<br />
Front was a good platform from which they could also fight against the<br />
patriarchal structures, against discrimination against women, <strong>and</strong> for<br />
their participation in education <strong>and</strong> the work force. When the movement<br />
acquired great importance socially <strong>and</strong> politically, this became its<br />
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