Belgrade Feminists 1992: Separation, Guilt and Identity Crisis

Abstract

Writing this paper about the feminist activities and our lives during the past couple of years, here we are, the three of us in the kitchen thinking about the most horrible facts about our lives, the war. Two million people have already been moved from their homes: many injured; many dead. A couple of million more have no food, heat, nor much hope to hold on to. And we are aware that citizens around us do not want to know that winter will kill thousands more people: that soldiers and other men will rape thousands more women: that rape is not a nationalist but a gender issue. One of us is nervous on and off, the other cannot even hear 's', (e) 'r' or 'b' (i.e. Serb) in one place without being angry it's high time women should get out on the streets and scream. For the forty years of our past the ideology of the equality of the genders so well known to the entire Eastern bloc has masked the reality of everyday life for women. Still, a semi-autonomous women's association, the Anti-Fascist Front of Women, was formed during World War II (1942) and many of our mothers were active in it. In 1953 it evolved into the Union of Women's Associations and included approximately 2,000 small women's units all over Yugoslavia. In 1961 these women's organizations were abolished and the Party formed Conference for the Social Activities of Women', which was hierarchically organized and governmentally divided. The history of Yugoslav post-war feminism started with Belgrade's International Feminists' Meeting in 1978, which was the turning point for the rise of women's groups. From 1980 on, two 'Women and Society' groups were formed, first in Zagreb and then in Belgrade. The Belgrade group provided an open forum for discussing women's issues. But in 1986 women decided to call the group 'feminist', create 'women-only space' and start activities and meetings on a regular basis. At this time 'The Conference for the Social Activities of Women'