WUNRN
BALKANS
The Veil Comes Down, Again
Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE,
Nov 21 (IPS) - It was 1950, towards the end of September, when hundreds of
Muslim women came on to the streets of Bosnian capital Sarajevo and ceremonially
took off their veils. The symbolic act was intended to mark the end of an era
when they left their homes 'covered'.
The local parliament had then
introduced a law to ban veils "with the aim of removing the centuries old
tradition of oppressing the female population." But in today's Sarajevo, many
daughters and granddaughters of these women have put the hijab back on again,
the 'cover' as it is called in Bosnia.
"Hijab is a matter of choice,"
Fahira Fejzic Cengic from the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo recently
wrote in a local magazine. "I decided to wear it, fully aware of all positive
and negative consequences."
Wearing a veil is not an issue if a woman
chooses to, Cengic said, "but it is a problem in certain countries where women
are forced to do so."
She took to traditional Islamic clothes and the
veil during the 1992-95 war when former Yugoslavia fell apart. The conflict
between Bosniak Muslims, who make half the population of Bosnia, Orthodox Serbs
and Catholic Croats took more than 100,000 lives, mostly of local Muslims of
Slav origin.
Post-war scars run deep in a country where the three groups
live separately. Capital Sarajevo is almost 80 percent Muslim now, and the veil
is very visible here.
Some women call the veil a return to tradition and
a matter of choice. Those who oppose it call it a hangover of the war days when
Bosniak Muslims received support from major Islamic countries, and were asked to
respect Islamic laws in return. Aid organisations from Islamic countries looked
after widows, and demanded strict respect of Islamic laws in return. Aid the
women continue to receive often exceeds average salary by far.
But not
all women call it a matter of choice. "This (covering) was not a matter of
choice for me or my two young daughters," a 45-year-old woman from the northern
Bosnian town Tuzla who gave her name as A.N. told IPS.
"My husband was
killed in Srebrenica in 1995 and I was left with four children, no income, no
skills. The aid I receive means we can live decently, but I have to respect the
religious laws. My daughters are attending a religious school for free, and my
sons will study for free either in Sarajevo or in any big Muslim country."
She and her children survived the worst massacre committed by Bosnian
Serbs during the war, when they killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys after
overrunning Srebrenica enclave in July 1995.
While Muslims in Bosnia
suffered from war, those living in the southwestern part of Serbia, Sandzak, led
a more peaceful life. But veils and traditional long coats are a common sight
here too in springtime and summer on the streets of the biggest town Novi Pazar,
with a population of some 52,000.
Islamic ways are clearly seeing a
revival. Leading Bosnian politicians have sought to introduce Islamic laws,
including polygamy, but the moves were rejected in parliament. That did not stop
religious leader Muharem Zukorlic from taking a second wife.
Here the
veil seems often a matter of choice. "I feel safer after I decided to wear a
cover, which I chose in order to show my religious beliefs," 28-year-old Aisa N.
told IPS. She works in a state-owned company and says her decision did surprise
many.
"I feel that many people approach me with more respect now, it
seems I got some new self-respect," she adds.
However, many people in
Novi Pazar view the new-old tradition as the influence of neighbouring Bosnia
and Islamic countries.
"They have put their foot into the Balkans doors
among Slav Muslims," a local textile factory owner told IPS. "This can be a
springboard of a kind to reach the West. Sandzak was always a conservative area,
but we were not religious fanatics. Now we have Wahhabis (a strict orthodox
Muslim sect originating in Saudi Arabia) among us and many people fear they can
cause a lot of trouble."
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