War cry: Bosnian women speak their peace
Review by Rob Mitchell
Boston Herald
January 30, 2005

There's a certain macho swagger to war - to its planning and execution. Would it be different if women shared the leadership? Would there be less fighting? The women of Bosnia think so.

Swanee Hunt, founder of Women Waging Peace, a global policy-oriented initiative working to integrate women into the peace process, gives voice to 26 Bosnian women. Together, they make a compelling case for the inclusion of women at the world's decision-making tables.

As U.S. Ambassador to Austria during the Clinton administration, Hunt was drawn to the Bosnian situation by the thousands of refugees who streamed over the border. In the course of her diplomatic work, she interviewed the women who became the subjects of the book and, from their stories, constructed a fluid narrative that provides an intimate, less blustery perspective on the Bosnian conflict.

Representing the whole range and mix of the Bosnian population - Serb, Croat, Muslim, Roman Catholic, Orthodox - the women steadfastly reject the notion that they live their lives within boxes of ethnic and religious affiliation. Indeed, from the content of their stories, it's hard to tell them apart. Their ethnic identities blend and merge and overlap, and that coalescence becomes the strength of their argument.

Unanimously, the women stress that prewar Yugoslavia was no more divided than other countries. Yes, they say, there were historical ethnic differences, but not the intractable hatred perceived by the rest of the world. They insist that the conflict was provoked by the agitation of greedy politicians, such as Slobodan Milosevic, who fostered the image of deep ethnic division, insidiously discouraging foreign involvement.

The women's collective world view rejects war and abhors fighting. From diverse walks of life - journalists, doctors, engineers, teachers, students, factory workers - they refer to themselves as mothers, wives, daughters and friends, with lives organized around people, around relationships that inevitably are torn apart by war. Had they been consulted, they would have brought this frame of reference to the decision-making table.

After the war, the exclusion of women extended to the Dayton peace talks where, perversely, the men who waged the war were called upon to plan and implement the peace. There is a strongly held view among the women that, had they been included, they would have sought cooperation rather than division along ethnic lines.

It was not their war, but Hunt insists that is precisely why they should shape the peace. If the 26 women she profiles are any indication, the women of Bosnia have the requisite ideas, energy and determination and are particularly well-suited to the sensitive work of leading their country toward recovery.

Rob Mitchell hosts the radio talk show "Pages to People," which airs on WBNW-AM and WPLM-AM.