The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

INTERVIEWS WITH PEACE ACTIVISTS
INTERVIEW WITH
BOSILJKA SCHEDLICH, BERLIN
Childhood in Yugoslavia/Croatia
What made me strong and unruly as a child was the desire to escape
from violence. Men beat women, children and animals, but for women
and children too, blows were an everyday means to get your way. In our
village, as soon as children could walk, they had to work, and I didn’t have
any toys either. My father wasn’t there, he lived near Split with my older
brother and sister, where he worked, and they went to school. I thought
that there, in the city, was another world, one without brutality. At that
time, I had never been to Split, or any town. And I wanted to go there.
In school I understood that progress lies in learning – in Yugoslavia after
the Second World War, that was an important idea in any case. I also saw
it as a way to escape from the village and its violence. In school, I learned
that women have the same rights as men. But my mother too, who took
care of everything alone, everything that men and women otherwise did
– the household, the animals, the field – she was the one who gave me
strength, and the feeling I could do anything I wanted, too.
When I was eight, I moved to town with my father. Only seldom could
my mother come, because of her work with the plants and the animals.
It was very beautiful when she was there, and the house smelled of
food when I came home from school. Otherwise, I had to manage the
household and take care of my younger brothers and sisters. The feeling
of responsibility for my surroundings developed from that – and also the
feeling that I could be at home anywhere, in the country or and in town.
After primary school, my father wanted me to go to vocational school,
but I simply registered for secondary school. Since he never went to my
school, he didn’t find out about it until two months after the beginning
of the term. He accepted it because the school was nearer to our house,
and I could get home faster after school. But after I got my leaving certif -
icate and wanted to go to another town to college, he wasn’t so under-
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