Abstract
The last decade of the twentieth century is characterized by conflicts, wars, and genocide in the Balkans and by the reaffirmation of religion in the public realm. Within the discussion about ethnic/national and religious identification among Bosnian Muslims, through the analysis of the Muslim woman’s magazine Zehra, this chapter focuses on the postwar interconnectedness of nation, religion and gender in the rebuilding of Bosniak Muslim women’s identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Zehra, launched by the prominent Muslim women’s NGO Kewser, was named after the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter. It is well known and widely distributed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and among the Bosniak diaspora in Europe and America. This chapter explores the magazine’s gender politics, the perception of the Bosniak Muslim Woman as reproducer and keeper of the Bosniak nation, and to what extent the magazine portrays the wearing of the hijab as an internal and external marker of the Bosniak nation.
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Notes
Mustafa Imamović, Historija Bošnjaka (Sarajevo: Preporod Bošnjačka zajednica kulture, 1997), pp. 138, 564–565.
Adrian Hastings, The Construction of Nationhood—Ethnicity, Religion, Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 130, 139, 140–142.
Different conflicting theories were developed about the Bosnian Church: the prevailing one is that the Bosnian Church is connected to Bogomils who embraced dualistic and Manichean heresy with completely different teachings and organization from the Catholic and Orthodox churches; the second one is that the Bosnian Church was a branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, probably Serbian, which then fell into schism due to the aforementioned heretical ideas. See Noel Malcolm, Bosnia: A Short History (New York: NYU Press, 1996); Mustafa Imamović, Historija Bošnjaka, pp. 138, 564–565.
Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, Živa Bosna, 2nd ed. (Slovenia: Oslobodjenje, 1994), pp. 24, 139, 199–200.
Tone Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian Way (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 80–84, p. 86.
During the war, Bosnian Muslim intellectuals organized two Sabor sessions in 1993 and 1994, with the main purpose of fortifying the defense strategy and reaffirmation of the Bosniak nation in the independent state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. One of the suggestions was the dissolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a proposal that, according to Mahmutćehajić, also contributed to the nationalist politics of destruction of the Bosnian State (Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, Živa Bosna, 2nd ed [Oslobodjenje, Slovenia, 1994], pp. 24, 139, 199–200).
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Carol Pateman, The Disorder of Woman: Democracy. Feminism and Political Theory (Cambridge: Polity, 1989), p. 1.
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Zilka Spahić-Šiljak, Women, Religion and Politics (Sarajevo: IMIC, CIPS, TPO, 2010), p. 161.
Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis, Racialized Boundaries: Race, Nation, Gender, Colour and Class and the Anti-Racist Struggle, New edition (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 6–11.
Vesna Kesić, “Gender and Ethnic Identities in Transition the Former Yugoslavia-Croatia,” in Rada Iveković and Julie Mostov (eds), From Gender to Nation (Ravena: Longo Editore, 2001), p. 65.
Quoted in Sita Ranchod-Nilson and Mary Ann Tetreault, Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? 1st ed. (New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 43.
Zilka Spahić-Šiljak, “Images of Women in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Neighboring Countries, 1992–1995,” in Faegheh Shirazi (ed.), Muslim Women in War and Crisis: From Reality to Representation (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), pp. 213–226.
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Zilka Spahić Šiljak, Sjaj ljudskosti—životne priče mirotvorki u Bosni i Hercegovini (Shining Humanity/Life Stories in Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina) (Fondacija, Sarajevo: TPO), 2013.
Elissa Helms, “The Nation-ing of Gender? Donor Policies, Islam, and Women’s NGOs in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Anthropology of East Europe Review 21(2) (2003), p. 3.
Sadika Avdić. “Imam Homeini, revolucionar ideje i misli” [Imam Homeini Revolutionist of Idea and Tought], Zehra 39 (June 2008), pp. 16, 38–41, 50.
Dževad Hodžić, “Macho razumijevanje islama” (Macho Understanding of Islam), Ljiljan 25 (February 2005), p. 41.
Zilka Spahic-Šiljak, Women, Religion and Politics: Impact Analysis of Interpretative Religious Heritage of Judaism, Christianity and Islam on the Engagement of Women in Public Life and Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo: IMIC, CIPS, TPO, 2010).
Anthias and Yuval-Davis, Racialized Boundaries, pp. 6–11; Deniz Kandiyoti, “End of Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey,” in D. Kandiyoti (ed.), Theory (Cambridge: Polity, 1989);
Ann McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (London and New York: Routledge, 1995).
Mahira Šeko, “Muslimanska Cosmo djevojka” [Muslim Cosmo Girl], Zehra 35 (August–September 2007), pp. 38–39.
Sadika Avdić, “Imam Homeini,” Zehra 39 (June 2008), pp. 38–41.
Irfan Subašić, “Ašura i Kerbela iz drugog ugla” [Ashura and Kerbela from Other Perspective], Zehra 22 (February–March 2005), p. 44.
Ibrahim Avdić, “Šta je to u Bošnjačkom biću što od njeg pravi siću” [“What is in the Bosniak Being that Makes Him Minuscule”], Zehra 8 (September 2002), pp. 4–6.
Carol Pateman, The Disorder of Woman: Democracy: Feminism and Political Theory (Cambridge: Polity, 1989), p. 1.
Azra Hasanović, “Ravnopravnost žena i muškaraca” [Equality of Women and Men], Zehra 14 (September 2003), p. 6.
Zilka Spahić Šiljak, Contesting Female Feminist and Muslim Identities: Post-Socialist Contexts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo (Sarajevo: CIPS of the University of Sarajevo, 2012), p. 131.
Quoted in Xavier Bougarel, “Bosnian Islam as ‘European Islam, Limits and Shifs of Concepts,’” in Aziz al-Azmeh and Effie Fokas (eds), Islam in Europe Diversity, Identity and Infuence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 110.
Elvedina Plasto, “Doktorica velikog srca” [Physician of Big Heart], Zehra 45 (January 2009), pp. 22–23.
Medhija Maglajlić, “Bošnjakinja je ponosom nadivisila sramotu koja joj je namijenjena” [Bosniak Woman Surpassed the Shame Intended for Her by Her Pride], Zehra 18 (June 2004), pp. 34–37.
Aida Kahriman, “Baby-Stop!?” Zehra 21 (September 2004), pp. 4–9.
Aida Krzić, “Šta nam je žena” [What Woman does Mean to Us], Zehra 28 (June 2006), pp. 11–12.
Sadžida Ćelebić, “Odgoj, obrazovanje i karakter žene” [Upbringing, Education, Character of Woman], Zehra 21 (December 2004), p. 34.
Smaragda Klino, “Savremena žena je tragikomičan lik” [Modern Woman is a Tragicomic Figure], Zehra 14 (September 2003), pp. 5–6.
Nilufer Göle, The Forbidden Modern: Critical Perspectives on Women and Gender (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), p. 79.
Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005), pp. 40–70, 158–159, 163.
Đermana Šeta, “Hidžab bez granica” [Hijab without Borders], Zehra 37 (January–February, 2008), pp. 38.
Zilka Spahić-Šiljak, Contesting Female, Feminist and Muslim Identities, 2012.
Sadika Avdić, “Sotonske sluge” (Satan’s Servants), magazine Zehra 24 (July– August, 2005), p. 3.
Aida Krzić, “Šta nam je žena” (What Woman does mean to Us), magazine Zehra 28 (June, 2006), pp. 11–12.
Velić-Mufićc Elvira and Mediha Džamkić, “Intervju s povodom” (Interview on the Occasion), magazine Zehra 41 (September, 2008), p. 5.
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© 2014 Gorana Ognjenović and Jasna Jozelić
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Šiljak, Z.S. (2014). Nation, Religion, and Gender. In: Ognjenović, G., Jozelić, J. (eds) Politicization of Religion, the Power of Symbolism. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477897_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477897_9
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