Violence against women and domestic violence, as one of the biggest challenges of Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) society, is a problem that has moved from the private to the public sphere. For a long time, partner and family violence in BiH was seen as a private family matter. Society’s intervention became more intense when awareness developed that preventing this type of violence is one of the imperatives in the field of human rights protection.
Every second woman in BiH experienced some form of violence after the age of 15, whether it was physical, psychological, sexual, or economic violence, according to data from the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH from 2013.
Violence is very prevalent in our society
Amna Muharemovic, Program Specialist at the UN Women BiH, spoke in an interview about violence against women, the problems they face, and also the projects with the help of which they try to prevent some kind of violence.
“Lately, we have been talking a lot about violence because of the very unfortunate incident on August 11th (the murder of Nizama Hecimovic in Gradacac) and because of the increased media attention on the greatest forms of violence such as femicide. However, even before this intensive media coverage, violence was very prevalent in our society. It is actually a reflection of the deep inequality of women in our society. Somehow, the last reflection of the absence of women in the labor market, we have a very small number of economically active women – 35 percent, which is the lowest figure in Southeast Europe. Violence is present in all societies,” Muharemovic stated.
Every other woman experienced some form of violence
When it comes to violence, it can be psychological and physical, sexual harassment, and even economic.
“Official statistics for BiH say that every second woman has experienced some form of violence, a quarter has experienced sexual harassment. There are many devastating statistics about social norms related to violence. About 85 percent of women who experienced violence did not report it and did not feel that they had enough trust in the institutions that the reported violence would be prosecuted. But there is also a social norm that says that a third of women believe that violence is a private matter and that it is usual, and to some extent even acceptable,” Muharemovic added.
She believes that society should talk about two things – one is the position of all participants in society, their equality and equal opportunities, and the other is about what society accepts and what it does not accept.
“We are a society that has an extremely high tolerance for violence, we are a society that has gone through great trauma, which we are still experiencing to some extent, and there is violence in hate speech, behavior, online sphere, mutual relations, something that we all accept or normalize to some extent. When violence happens, especially in its most severe form, then it’s too late. Then we can only talk about the fact that another child fell asleep without his mother. It can no longer be fixed,” emphasized Muharemovic.
E.Dz.
