"Woman" in the Service of National Identity

Close your eyes and imagine a woman from ex-Yugoslavia. What does she look like? Is she haggard, hollow-eyed, despondent, babushka clad with baby in tow, lugging water, dodging bullets in the streets of Sarejevo, weeping uncontrollably over the death of her son/husband/father/child, consoled by a kindly old gentleman? We all know what the women of ex-Yugoslavia look like because CNN tells us so.

Yet women hold prominent posts in nearly every nongovernmental organization in the ex-Yugoslavia - from peace organizations, to human rights groups, to pro-intervention groups.