Children born of rape

[Djamila]

Today, we know that during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 28,000 women were raped and more than 582 babies were born from these actions. These numbers are considered to be much lower than the actual numbers because they include only those women who came forward, only those women who told their children the truth.

This is a documentary about the effect this has had on Bosnian Muslim women, and our culture as a whole. It's a piece that is very painful to watch but it is also important. It follows one group of Muslim women who return to court to face the man who raped them.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5386743082021252158&q=bosnia
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[Djamila]

And I have to add. This video mentions this, but does not credit it to Mustafa Ceric.

Mustafa Ceric is Bosnia's Grand Imam, he's virtually the equivalent of a Bosnian Muslim Pope. He said, after the war, and it makes me cry just typing it I'm so proud of him:

Women who were raped during the war, and survived it, are heroes to the equivalent of any man who died on the battlefield. They should be honored, and supported, and the children who were born of these rapes should be embraced by the community.

That made such a difference. It's still not great, it's still not an ideal situation in Bosnian society for a woman who has been raped. There is still a great deal of difficulty in finding a respectable husband, and so on. But he made things so much better, single-handedly. So bravo to Mustafa Ceric!

 

[Sunstone]

And I have to add. This video mentions this, but does not credit it to Mustafa Ceric.

Mustafa Ceric is Bosnia's Grand Imam, he's virtually the equivalent of a Bosnian Muslim Pope. He said, after the war, and it makes me cry just typing it I'm so proud of him:

Women who were raped during the war, and survived it, are heroes to the equivalent of any man who died on the battlefield. They should be honored, and supported, and the children who were born of these rapes should be embraced by the community.

That made such a difference. It's still not great, it's still not an ideal situation in Bosnian society for a woman who has been raped. There is still a great deal of difficulty in finding a respectable husband, and so on. But he made things so much better, single-handedly. So bravo to Mustafa Ceric!

I second the sentiment. A rape victim is not responsible for her rape, nor is a child born of rape responsible for how she was conceived. I can imagine it takes a certain amount of moral courage to assert that when it is not the prevalent attitude in a society.

 

[ayani]

bravo to him, truly. i can think of no other religious leader who would say such a true, heartening thing. he is right. women suffer terribly in war, even if they never see a battlefields. they and their children have their own battles to survive.

 

[nutshell]

Great words from a great man.

 

[Djamila]

Here is a song, in English, by a band from Sarajevo called "Unplugged Plug".

He wrote it about a woman he fell in love with, but with whom the relationship just would not work, her weird quirks and things. He found out years later she had been raped during the war, and wrote this song about her as sort of an apology for reacting to her... issues... like it was normal, couple fights.

http://www.eurobosniamp3.com/mp3/Unplugged%20Plug%20-%20Everything%20She'll%20Do.mp3

 

[Djamila]

Great words from a great man.

Sometimes I simply can't help but be so proud when I think of our men. There are often so many things that frustrate me, like the astronomically high levels of domestic abuse in Bosnia and throughout southern Europe - right from Portugal to Turkey. But then other things just make so proud.

Like, in Bosnia we have a very big problem with the sex trade. Girls in Romania and Moldova pay a fee of about $2,500 USD to be smuggled to Western Europe. Most never make it there. The smugglers sell them as sex slaves to brothels, sex clubs, and strip clubs throughout the Balkans - mainly in Albania, Serbia, and Bosnia.

These women don't speak the local language, their passports are confiscated by the smugglers, they work at businesses that are never located in cities but are always placed at abscure railway junctions or border crossings where, even if they did escape, it's a days journey at least to the nearest town. They are, in every sense of the word, slaves.

Now to combat this they established toll-free hotlines for these women to call. They did it throughout the Balkans, from Slovenia all the way south to Greece. They issued radio and television advertisements with these numbers in the Romanian language, as well as a few other languages (like Ukrainian) these women often speak.

And they found that in Albania and Serbia, these women found their way to phones and they called. And once the police had this complaint, with her name, then they could move in and free her. Unless the woman complains, they can do nothing. The smugglers can put a gun to her head in front of the police and say: Tell them you're here willingly, and they probably could do nothing. That's an exxageration, of course, but this is a very strange loop-hole in Bosnian law.

Anyhow, in Bosnia it wasn't the women that were calling - as in Turkey, it was the men! Men who visited these clubs and found the women were not there willingly, too macho and too proud to sleep with a woman who did not want them, would report the clubs themselves. And that just made me so happy, and so proud.

So often people focus only on the negative aspects of our society, where women are babied, demeaned, and so on. But everything has an equal and opposite side, and with this attitude also comes opening doors, also comes standing up against anyone who would dare say a curse against you, and also comes this sort of thing.

So I think, more and more each day, it's a fair trade.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Anyhow, in Bosnia it wasn't the women that were calling - as in Turkey, it was the men! Men who visited these clubs and found the women were not there willingly, too macho and too proud to sleep with a woman who did not want them, would report the clubs themselves. And that just made me so happy, and so proud.

That's great. Your interpretation is still a little pessimistic. While it may be true that the men are reporting the club because they are macho and proud, could it be that some of them were actually concerned about the plight of these women?

 

[Djamila]

A song from the movie Grbavica, which is nominated for an Oscar at the next Academy Awards.

It tells the story of a Muslim woman raped during the war, and how she finally tells her daughter - who was always told her father was a Muslim killed in the war - the truth.

This is a song from that film, sung by women in a rape support group.

It has subtitles, so you'll be able to understand.


Kad procvatu behari

Only one of these women are actors. They were all brave enough to be in this scene.

 

[Djamila]

The woman who isn't an actor is the very last one shown. She is Mirjana Karanovic, a Serb from Serbia, who accepted the role (the lead role, of the mother). She should get something like the Nobel Prize as far as I am concerned. I've seen half a dozen or more interviews with her, and the longest one with HAYAT was my favorite.

She talked about how, when she accepted the role, all she could think about was making sure her family in Serbia were safe from revenge attacks, and that she would be able to do this role without slandering her people, and so on. But she said once she came to Sarajevo and started meeting with the women to research her role, she lost all thoughts about herself. And she said that Grbavica was the hardest and easiest film she ever made, because "the only time I was truly acting was when I recited my lines. Everything else was as it was."

 

[Djamila]

I disagree. Can't put into words why, but I do.

 

[Quiddity]

Wow! Those are some brave women. They deserve the honor extended to them. Peace be with them.