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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I always had intensive contacts <strong>to</strong> my compatriots, <strong>and</strong> became aware<br />
<strong>of</strong> how many <strong>of</strong> them were having ever greater difficulties, because they<br />
had the idea <strong>of</strong> having <strong>to</strong> be better than the Germans <strong>and</strong> the Turks, <strong>and</strong><br />
therefore always worked more than the others. At the same time, they<br />
wanted <strong>to</strong> prove – even <strong>to</strong> their former enemies – that it had been<br />
worthwhile <strong>to</strong> go abroad for work, by taking home many presents for<br />
relatives <strong>and</strong> acquaintances, <strong>and</strong> by building houses in Yugoslavia. At<br />
the same time, they lived in cheap flats in Berlin, ate bad food <strong>and</strong> held<br />
several jobs at a time. To st<strong>and</strong> the pressure, the men drank <strong>and</strong> the<br />
women swallowed pills. <strong>The</strong>ir children wanted <strong>to</strong> take root in their new<br />
country, <strong>and</strong> be at home there, but their fathers wanted them <strong>to</strong> be part<br />
<strong>of</strong> their village communities, for they were stuck in the era in which they<br />
had been when they had left their villages. <strong>The</strong> mothers stretched themselves<br />
between their husb<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> their children, were frequently beaten,<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong>ok even more pills. For these women, I organized the first wom -<br />
en’s group in Berlin, then the first <strong>and</strong> the second women’s shops.<br />
After I had worked the s<strong>to</strong>ries <strong>of</strong> innumerable women <strong>and</strong> my own experiences<br />
in<strong>to</strong> an exhibition, I wanted <strong>to</strong> start doing what I had always<br />
wanted <strong>to</strong> do, study literature <strong>and</strong> philosophy. I actually registered, but<br />
never started <strong>to</strong> study. For in 1989, I noticed how my compatriots who<br />
were so familiar <strong>to</strong> me gradually began <strong>to</strong> change. First, they read the<br />
newspapers from home about the economic crisis, then about the national<br />
conflicts which became ever more violent. <strong>The</strong>y founded national<br />
organizations in Berlin which became more <strong>and</strong> more nationalistic, matching<br />
the sharpening <strong>of</strong> the tensions in Yugoslavia. In these organiza -<br />
tions, they watched the evening TV newscasts from their respective<br />
capitals <strong>to</strong>gether. Even so far away from home, <strong>and</strong> living in a <strong>to</strong>lerant<br />
city, they couldn’t resist the influence <strong>of</strong> the propag<strong>and</strong>a. With helplessness,<br />
despair, rage <strong>and</strong> hatred they spurred each other on; they claimed<br />
<strong>to</strong> be all good citizens <strong>of</strong> their respective nations. <strong>The</strong>y got caught up in<br />
the propag<strong>and</strong>a nets, <strong>and</strong> began <strong>to</strong> peer ever further back in<strong>to</strong> the past.<br />
Like psychotics, they talked about threats from the “others”, who, in<br />
their eyes, had forfeited their human countenances. No words could<br />
serve <strong>to</strong> move them away from these visions, for it was as if their minds<br />
had been switched <strong>of</strong>f. <strong>The</strong>re was deep distrust, even against their own<br />
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