The performance on the Spanish Square in Mostar was organized by the Citizens’ Initiative Mostar, and will be held as part of the global campaign “16 days of activism against gender-based violence”, which began on November 25 with the International Day against Violence against Women, and will end on December 10 – Human Rights Day.
As they pointed out from the Initiative, which initiated the performance shortly after Aldina Jahić (32) was killed in Mostar, this is an opportunity to remind the public of one of the most difficult social problems of today, but also to strengthen the collective awareness and response of the community to gender-based violence.
– Behind us are 15 chairs with the initials of women killed in the past two years in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These are the data we received from the basic research of Mrs. Senka Kurt, that is, the data we received from non-governmental organizations. So, there we have another problem in the form of the lack of a register of victims of femicide – warned the vice president of the Alma Pelo Zagorčić Initiative, inviting the citizens of Mostar to attend the performance and, if they wish, bring a flower to symbolically honor the murdered women.
The Initiative pointed out that “each chair bears the initials, age, place and manner of suffering, but also one difficult question that resounds: How much longer?”
The executive director of the Ifeta Initiative Ćesir Škoro emphasized that by the day of the start of the performance, in 2025, three women had been killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two in this month alone. She emphasized that these are the data of the research that was done with the support of the OSCE.
– There are QR codes on the chairs with information about victims of femicide. In these data, it can be seen that these are women of various ages, and the longer the life was, the longer the violence lasted – emphasized Škoro.
She emphasized that the violence was not reported because the victimized women “did not trust the system, as well as because of deeply rooted patriarchy” and added that “some women did report the violence, but there was no adequate response in the protection system”.
– I am asking citizens to raise our voices together, not to remain silent. Together we can do a lot, we know more, we can do more, primarily to show the protection system that women should be trusted, that women should be protected – Škoro added.
She also emphasized that this year’s campaign is dedicated to digital violence and that thanks to responsible, empathetic fellow citizens from the local community, video messages in support of the campaign against violence against women and girls were prepared, which can be seen on the Initiative’s profiles on social networks.
The performance was supported by the City of Mostar, the Swedish organization Kvinna till Kvinna, a foundation founded in 1993 that supports women in war and conflict zones with a strong concentration in the Balkans, and Mostar High School, which with its pupils and students, as well as the teaching staff headed by the director, helped with the preparation.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
