|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Return
to
|
|
The Circle of Evil Can Be Stopped: Increasing
Women's Political Participaton by Nuna Zvizdic Education is the most important means of encouraging women to become active participants in public life. The process of educating women includes understanding women's problems, raising their political consciousness, lobbying, and creating networks. We at Zene Zenama (Women to Women) have developed a strategy for increasing women's participation within the historical context in which we are living, and we feel optimistic about women's role in the reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We believe that building a democratic civil society is a long-term process, and we are committed to engaging and inspiring women's initiatives during the process of reconstruction. Women have moved from the status of object toward becoming the agents of transformation. Women have directed their efforts toward increasing the sharing of power between the sexes, and are striving for equal participation in political, economic and cultural life. How did women begin to change the age-old patterns of discrimination in politics? After Bosnia and Herzegovina secured its independence from Yugoslavia, women began to form nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in order to have an avenue through which to participate in public life. Women from NGOs, together with women from political parties, articulated their will to participate equally with men in creating the conditions for normal life. Throughout the country, we initiated and organized seminars, meetings, and conferences. All of these gatherings shared the same goal: to achieve the active voting right of women (guaranteed by the Constitution) through a 1998 campaign, "There Are More of Us." Part of that campaign applied the "women's rule" (adopted before the 1998 election), which meant that each party had to have three candidates of a different sex among its first ten candidates. It has resulted in approximately 2,670 women being elected into local parliaments throughout the country. This has been a women's revolution. Compare this to the first democratic elections in 1990, when women constituted only two percent of elected bodies even though they made up 57 percent of the population of 3.8 million. With this campaign, 11,000 female voters, who represent a critical nucleus of participants, gained a newfound awareness that the power of decisions is in their hands. Several additional indicators show that the campaign was a success:
During the campaign, women prevailed over geographic, ethnic and language barriers to involve people from many constituencies. The key to building trust throughout multi-ethnic communities is to recognize different perspectives-by fostering transparency and tolerance, by sharing responsibilities, and by instituting constructive means of resolving conflicts. During conflict mediation, we are trying to learn to recognize and understand our own emotions, to keep distance from our potentially destructive feelings, and to forbid ourselves from accusing or rejecting human beings based on predetermined assumptions. At the same time, we are trying to avoid false harmony and are beginning to learn to live with differing points of view. We are unwilling to pass on old wounds from generation to generation. The circle of evil can be stopped, and our deepest wounds healed. Nuna Zvizdic is the project manager, facilitator and moderator for conflict resolution at Zene Zenama, a Global Fund grantee in Bosnia and Herzegovina. |
|
|
|
|||
