The conference in Sarajevo held on June 7 and 8th was a great and resounding success. It became the main feature of the Sarajevo Peace Event and attracted at least 150 people per session and was widely covered by the media. There were some last minute changes and cancellations due to the dramatic flooding and road conditions, but speakers came from all over the world to attend!
Thanks to the support and sponsorship of University of Sarajevo, WILPF ,Sarajevo Peace Event, Zenska Alternativa Vlada.
Here is a recap of the event
“The place of women in war 1914-2014“ Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th June 2014
Saturday, 7th June, 2014
09.30 – 10.00 Opening Remarks
- Dr. Carol Mann, Sciences Po, Paris, Director of Women in War
- Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CIS), University of Sarajevo
- Dragana Dardić/ Dženana Kapo, BiH Women’s Alternative Government
- Nermina Trbonja,, Secretary General of Women in War
Theme 1: The grim realities of war
The day was devoted to examining different aspects of the experience of war through the gender lense. The main speakers examined the broader picture, including issues such as nationalism, propaganda, genocide, motherhood followed by examples on the ground in different conflict zones to show how women in particular handle situations they have been confronted with as victims, resistants, survivors even perpetrators. This theme was carried though in the round tables in afternoon.
10.00- 11.15 1st Panel, The grim realities of war. Moderator: Miloš Urošević- tbc
- Gorana Mlinarević, Goldsmiths College London, Recognizing women’s experiences of war. Struggle to become active agents in deciding about the future of the society at war. What experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Syria are teaching us?
- Dr. Jasmina Husanović, University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina : Women, war and “labouring for security”: Between and beyond the logics of victimisation and commodification
- Dr. Carol Mann: Sciences Po, Paris: Motherhood as propaganda, resistance or fatality
11.35 – 12.45 1st Panel continuation
- Dr. Ana Miskovska-Kajevska, University of Amsterdam: Taking An Epistemological Stand: A Critical Analysis of the Scholarship on the Belgrade and Zagreb War-Related Feminist Activism in the 1990s
- Dr. JoAnn DI GEORGIO-LUTZ, Texas A&M University Galveston: Women and Genocide: War and Survival
14.00 – 16.00 Round Tables
Round Table 1: Survival, for better, for worse. Moderator: Aida Spahić
- Dr. Amanda Dias, LAU/CNRS, Paris: Mothers’ resistance to violence in favelas in Rio de Janeiro
- Alexandar Cooper, Central European University, Budapest: Butch Shoes and Anti-War, Anti-Nationalist Activism
- Dr. Carol Mann, Sciences Po, Paris: The resistance of women during the siege of Sarajevo: the case of Dobrinja
Round Table 2: Fighters:Moderator: Shawna Carroll
- Elodie GAMACHE, Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle: Female combattants in the FARC guerrilla group in Colombia
- Jasenka Ferizović, Goldsmiths College London, War crimes committed by female perpetrators
- Gordana Stojaković, Novi Sad Women’s Centre: The Antifascist Front of Women – Experience of the Women’s Mass organization
- Lejla Hadžiahmić, University of Sarajevo: Women-combatants: The invisible soldiers of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Session on Middle East. Moderator: Gorana Mlinarević
- Oziem Kaya, Boğaziçi University. Truth, Justice and Memory Centre Women, Istanbul: Left Behind: Enforced Disappearances in Turkey
- Samah Saleh, Goldsmiths College, University of London: Is there a private space for Palestinian women under Israeli occupation?
- Maria Al Abadeh, Soryat for Development and Razan Ghazzawi, citizen journalist and blogger: Women Activism in a Male-hegemonic War.
- Mia Tamarin, SOAS, London: Israel’s female soldier “only a woman”
Sunday 8th June, 2014
Theme 2: War and After
The second day was devoted to evaluating the aftermath, what has been gained what has been lost in wars in the last twenty years, especially Bosnia and the Balkans, Rwanda, Afghanistan stressing the issue of justice and war tribunals.
10.00 – 11.15 : 2nd Panel: War and After .Moderator: Gorana Mlinarević
- Dr. Kirsten CAMPBELL, Goldsmiths College, University of London : The Gendered Witnessing of War, Testimonial Modes beofre the International Criminal Tribibunal for the Former Yugoslavia
- Maria O’ Reilly, Goldsmiths’ College, University of London: “Ambiguous Loss” and “Ambivalent Gains”: Women’s Agency Surrounding the Search for Missing Persons in Post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina
11.35 – 12.45 2nd Panel continuation
- Dr. Shirley Randall, A.O. Founding Director of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development at the University of Rwanda : Gender and Post-Genocide reconstruction in Rwanda
- Samina Kabir, SOAS, London: Women in Afghanistan after three decades of war
14.00 – 16.00 Round Tables
Round Table 3: Facing the post-war society. Moderator: Bojana Dokanovic
- Nejra Čengić, CIS, University of Sarajevo: (Underlying) Continuities and (Underlying)Discontinuities, Gender and war Experience in female Narratives
- Jenifer White, Chicago School of Professional Psychology: Capturing a Phenomenon: A Photo-Voice into Healing Memories among Intergenerational Trauma in Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Ana Rajković, Univerity of Zagreb: Gender-Conditioned Reconstruction of Society in Slavonia
- Zlatiborka Popov Momčinović, University of East Sarajevo: Women Facing Reconciliation Processes in post-war BiH
Round Table 4: What justice? Moderator: Selma Korjenić
- Natasha Price, University of Bristol: Prosecuting Rape as Genocide? Experiences of Justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- Agniezska Fal, Sciences Po, Paris: Women in Justice and Justice for Women: International Tribunals, gender and post-conflict nation building in Bosnia and Rwanda
- Orly Maya STERN, London School of Economics and Political Science: The Principle of Distinction and Women in African Conflict
- Brenda Opperman, UN Institute of Peace: Hawks, Doves and Canaries: Aligning Women, Peace and Security with Military Doctrine
16.20-17.30 Round table 5: Sexual violence in war. Moderator: Nermina Trbonja
- Emily Jensen, College of St Benedict, St. Joseph (Mn) USA: Wartime Rape: Moving beyond masculinity- the cases of Sierra Leone, the DRC, and Bosnia Herzegovina.
- Katarina Lukas, MIlano School of International Affairs : Silencing Agency and Forgetting Sexual Violence: The Failures of Statebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Lucia Dighiero, Wartime Rape and Testimony experience
- Holly Williamson, Arizona State University: Gender Role Socialization, the State, and Political Violence
- Jelena Svirčić, Journalist activist, Croatia twenty years after the war: Ethnic approach still persist
17.00-18.00 Conclusions and Closing Remarks
- Nermina Trbonja
- Dr. Carol Mann, University of Sciences Po, Paris – Women in War
Video participations will be shown and also available on You-Tube ‘Women in War’ Channel, to which others filmed during the conference will be added
https://www.youtube.com/user/
- Amya Agarwal, University of Delhi : Seeing Peace as a Choice in Conflict: A Case Study of the Extraordinary Struggle for Peace by Meira Paibis, a Women’s Group in Manipur, India
- Anette Bingedal Houge, University of Oslo: Perpetrators of sexualized violence
- Kirthi Jayakumar, Legal Counsel and Researcher, Chennai, Emasculation in Conflict – Hidden narratives of wartime sexual violence against men
- Annelie Schlaug, University of Lund: Bodies as Alibis or resistance
- Rakhee Suryaprakash, Sunshine Millenium, Chennai: India’s Women, struggling for equality in peace and conflict
- Joy Tumwebaze, Training and research Centre, Kigali: Children born from rape after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
- Cristina Reyes, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris: Embroidering for Peace in Mexico, women deconstructing the logic of extreme violence in the context of war on Drugs
This is the first in a series of annual conferences that will take place yearly from 2014 to 2018 to commemorate the varied place of women in armed conflicts worldwide. The next one in 2015 will take place in Beirut with a workshop planned in Belgrade.
Page Facebook : Women in War
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-in-War/442058322592283
Azra, who re-organised schooling in her neighbourhood under siege next to the destroyed school in Dobrinja (Sarajevo).
For those who read/speak Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, articles on the conference
http://www.radiosarajevo.ba/novost/153202/bkc-konferencija-o-ucescu-i-polozaju-zena-u-ratu
http://www.libela.org/vijesti/
http://www.libela.org/sa-stavom/5141-zene-na-marginama-povijesti/
