Men Continue to Control the Financial Power

22 February 2006

Jasminka Dzumhur, National Human Rights Officer with UN High Commission for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2001, works in Sarajevo and shares her time between Sarajevo and Zenica. For years, she had been active in one of the oldest and strongest women NGOs in B&H, Medika from Zenica, and later with the Centre for Legal Assistance for Women, also in Zenica. Human rights, and women human rights in particular, have been her main area of interest for over 11 years.

Jasminka Dzumhur, National Human Rights Officer with UNHCHR BiH

She says that, back in the days when she enrolled the School of Law in Sarajevo, she didn�t see herself as a lawyer, not to mention a feminist.

�As a student, I volunteered with Radio Sarajevo and Radio Zenica. I thought of my self primarily as a journalist, since I believed that the Law is only for people who couldn�t complete any other studies. I was also attracted by natural sciences, the technology of food production, horticulture...�

Then again, I got my first employment with the Zenica Steel Mills, as a lawyer. She remembers her crying on the first day at the job in the Mills.

After the Steel Mills, she worked with the �Celik� Football Club from Zenica, and then to �Zenicatrans�, a transportation company.

�It somehow happened that I always worked in companies dominated by men�.

At the age of 26, she applied for a position with the Zenica Court of Misdemeanors, seemingly with little chance of actually winning the job. Nonetheless, those were the years when preference was given to younger candidates.

The women emancipation entered Jasminka�s family through her grandmother on the maternal side who, although born in 1914, managed to complete civil highschool, which was unthinkable for a woman back at that time.

�My mother gave birth to nine children. Seven of them lived, five of them girls. She always insisted that her daughters complete their education out of the beliefe that only education can save the female children. I didn�t grow up in the typical Bosnian family, having in mind that my father was an army officer with the former JNA and knew how to do many of the household chores. He was willing to help and he did help a lot. Mom still worked when he retired, so lots of their roles changed sides. When I grew up, my mother used to say that I should not be that open, to show my personallity fully, since noone would marry me.�

In spite of all her mother�s fears, Jasminka is happily married, mother of two girls that she raises to be strong, emancipated women, aware of the importance of human rights and sensitive to injustice.

Dzumhur believes that her transfer to the Misdemeanors Court definitely made her grow up. She married the same year, gave birth to her first child, started a new job and had to pass bar examination.
That year was the turning point in my life. I got the self-confidence that there are no jobs out of my reach, that it all depends on the organization of time and personal energy.�

The other professional change came in 1993, when the changes in the Court caused by the wartime migrations, brought her to the head and she was promoted to the position of President of the Court.

�I accepted that position in spite of all difficulties. We had to take a position what is the Law, what is the lower limit that we won�t cross in a situation when politics offered solutions that would be considered violations under any Law. It was very difficult and, were I to know at the time I accepted what would happen, I might not have accepted it. I still believe that, in spite of all the problems, the Court never violated anybody�s right. I can walk proudly through Zenica today and many people approach me to just say hello.�

How did you get into the whole story on women organizing?
Back then, many women arrived to Zenica, for instance by train from Kozarac. They came without their husbands, got accomodated in school facilities and many of them stayed there until the end of the war. Other refugee groups, for example from Jajce, arrived with whole families intact and the presence of men did help them to find a place to rent, better accomodation, some level of security.
Monica Hauser, German ginecologist, came to Zenica in 1992 with the goal to assist the women victims of war. She talked to some of the women who saught a model for registration of their activity. I met, rather by chance, one of them in December 1992 and proposed that they register as citizens� association. They accepted the proposal and I completed the registartion procedure personally. I thought that I have done my part of the job. However, women seeking legal assistance started coming to me and, before I was even aware of it, I became a part of a system for protection of women, I started a new life. I worked on two tracks, in the Court until 4p.m., then to Medika, and went home at about seven or eight in the evening.
The first year was very difficult. Once we started providing medical, psycho-social protection for the women, we realized the need to upgrade the process, to teach the women about their rights, the rights of their children. It caused an expansion in the organization, changes in teh structure, new registration. It was funny sometimes, since I had to reregister Medika on weekly basis at one period of time.
There were some problems, naturally. The structures in power at that time didn�t have quite clear position on Medika, the opinions were divided, having in mind that it was a foreign citizen who came to develop a programme here. There was pressure, on myself, on my husband. Medika was seen by many as an espionage organization and I was told that I can�t be both in Medika and remain President of the Court. I offered to resigne from my position, but that offered no solution tot he problem with Medika, especially if if was some sort of espionage organization.

Why were the local authorities bothered by the fact that one organization provides assistance to women?
We heard all sorts of accusation � Medika will cover up the true number of raped women, will help with abortions of unwanted pregnances...�

How many women were engaged in Medika at the time?
The first circle of women working in Medika included Zilka Hadzihajric, Professor of German Language, dr. Zemira Hasic, Edita Ostojic, Zlata Gafic, Marijana Senjak, a psychologist, three nurses. All in all, I would say about 20 women were involved.

When was the Centre for Legal Assistance to Women created?
In 1996, it was the most important for us to provide legal assistance to women victims of war, women lacking documents, marriage certificates, women who couldn�t realize their rights. Our legal system demanded that they start procedure to declare their husbands, considered missing, as legally dead in order to have the right to pension, to property title. Some of them were married by were not registered.
Therefore, we created the Centre for Legal Assistance to Women � Zenica. That was the turning point that proved that it would not suffice to provide legal assistance, but influence on the legislation was needed. The legislation needed changes. The war produced some new situations that were not covered by the legal system.
We had civilian victims of war whose status was regulated in one way before. The war produced huge numbers of orphaned children, which were not present in the legislation in any way. The Family Law allowed full adoption only for children younger then four years of age. A child orphaned in 1992 or 1993 couldn�t be adopted in 1997, having in mind that it exceeded the legal age limits.
We started to lobby to change the regulations, but a group of woment lawyers is not sufficient to initiate the changes without the support from the community. So, in 1997, we organized the lawyers� conference, we invited colleagues from both entities, discussed property rights, family legislation. It was a purely professional debate and many connections between colleagues remain to this day and, more importantly, all these connections remain active on professional level.

When did the whole story of assistance to women, mostly humanitarian and psycho-social, progressed into feminist activism? When did the group of women gather in Medika started talking about the unequal status of men and women in our society, about the need for change?
I have to say here that we concluded in 1996, after the peace agreement was signed, that women had hardly any participation in everything that went on in the war: destruction, crimes, expulsions and deportations. We started asking the question, would it all happen if the women held political power, if women held the government?
That question brought up the process of changes in awareness. We realized that children and women were the greatest victims of the war. We started asking ourselves what caused such situation, what is missing in the society that caused such consequences? What is it that we could change? Then, in 1996, we had the elections and the catastrophy of not having a single woman in position of power led us to the realization that we need to change the very concept of our action. In retrospect, I have to say that we were aware that something was wrong, indeed, but we didn�t call it discrimination.

When did you start talking about feminism?
There were women who went to conferences abroad and presented the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When we participated in conferences abroad, we presented the situation as�the status of women in B&H society�. More educated people could present it as the status of women human rights, as a question of gender based discrimination, inexistence of feminism as a concept. We weren�t capable of viewing the issue in that way at that time, so we discussed the status of women in B&H society. We realized later that many of the things we did was, indeed, practical feminism, but we didn�t know the theory behind it.

Was your engagement in women organizations put on hold when you transferred to the High Commissioner Office in 2001?
I remain active in the women organizations, in such a way to provide all organizations support for their projects. I am a board member at the Bosnian Women Initaitive, I was active for quite some time at the Economic Women Network, since I believed that it was amovement conceived to eliminate gender discrimination and act preventively. In practical terms, it was the economic discrimination and insufficient participation in economic affairs has created the gender-based discrimination in general. Lamentably, the very moment the local women movements turn into international organizations� projects, they crash and are deflated. I hope it will not be the case with the Economic Network and I wish that it remains true to the original idea, an initiative of local women which will further strengthen.

Is there a danger for women activism to weaken and the talk of the gender equality to regress with the expected departure of international donors?
The war did released the energy of women in B&H and it showed them that they are capable of surpassing many obstacles previously considered unsurmountable. The women were often the sole providers for their families during the war, having in mind that the men were at the front lines. In a sense, it was as if �Aladin�s spirit� was released from the lamp. Then, the foreing organizations came and help the women activism.
For me, the greatest moment was the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality. However, our target groups that need to be influenced to create relations based on full gender equality are the generations currently in school. Only a change in the pre-education and education system could create a society free of discrimination. The current women movement, created of women groups, NGOs has difficulties to access the system of education to try and initiate changes, introduce human rights education, and under its auspices, education on gender equality. We have an older generation that still holds the power here, which we are not able to influence or change. We can influence them only partially, but their level of awareness remains the same.
It is this structure that makes the decisions in education. While we have the NGO sector which remains outside that curcle and is supported by the international funds, sector that applies on the principle of available funds rather then existing needs of the society. The question is is there a communication between the nongovernmental sector and the interatnional organizations. There will hardly be progress without a systemic interconnection in that circle. The women alone can�t push forward with those changes. The men too, as holders of power and government, have the responsibility to work on the changes. All political parties promote gender equality in their platforms. Whoever has an obligation can be held accountable.
It shouldn�t have happened that the Law on Gender Equality is adopted in June and is immediatelly followed by so many violations during the process of appointment for public positions when most positions were given to men. These are the better paid jobs which provide increased economic power, while women are economically disenfranchized and the negative circle just continues to widen. The man have greater access to funds and information. We can�s speak of equal opportunities since we don�t have equal access to the financial resources.

The need to create a society of equal opportunity is mostly advocated by middle-aged women. There are few young women involved and it seems that the whole story doesn�t relate to them all that much?
We should see where do we find these women. They are not part of the working and active segment of the society, they are pushed to the margins, therefore, the story is of no interest to them.
How does one get power in this country? Changes in society are possible only through political activity, which means active participation in political parties. If the women are absent from the platforms of the existing political parties, if they don�t get involved and accept some compromises, they live outside the system and can�t influence it.

Whose rights are more often subjected to violations in B&H, men�s of women�s?
It depends on the actual right that is being violated. Generally, the level of violations due to the disfunctional system is so high that I wonder how do the common people realize their rights at all, having in mind the difficulties I have in that regard, in spite of all my knowledge and abilities. Definitely, the violations of rights of women and children are most common here.