This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace
Review by Edward Grosek
Catholic Library World

Since 1997, Swanee Hunt has been director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where she also teaches. She is the founder and chair of Women Waging Peace, an organization working to integrate women into peace processes.

Before 1991, Yugoslavia was a stable multicultural nation. In 1991, it began to break apart, and from 1991 to 2000, there was fighting and bombing throughout. This Was Not Our War consists of an account of the fighting in Bosnia as seen through the eyes of women, a chapter on the reasons for the fighting as given by women who experienced it, a section on how Bosnian women are helping to rebuild their country, and then profiles of twenty-six Bosnian women. Pages 104 to 114 present a first-hand account of pre-war Bosnia's multiculturalism. The book itself is well structured and contains maps of Yugoslavia and glossaries of places and people. Hunt's purpose in writing it is to show why women must join politicians at the war-decision tables.

In her section recounting the shelling of Bosnia, Hunt emphasizes the helplessness of women,
friendships made during the attacks, people fleeing, property losses and atrocities. For chapter 3, 'Reasons for the War," Hunt interviewed many Yugoslavian women. None of their responses reflect the explanations of newspaper reporters. The interviewees claim openly that there was no popular sentiment for inter-ethnic hostilities, that politicians orchestrated the war, and that no one now is better off for this civil war. She tells how Marshall Tito had kept peace and how President Milosevic purposefully fed misinformation to the Serbs and spun them against the Muslims.

In further chapters, Hunt tells how women, especially Muslim women, are now taking on the roles and work of men: running for office, helping the traumatized, repairing houses, producing a radio program, and raising needed money. She summarizes her conversations with women on betrayal, scheming, reconciliation, revenge and non-forgiveness.

Stating that women are more logical in addressing the errors of war and that her role is to record their voices, Hunt then presents her profiles. Alma Keco was an engineer who became, when the fighting began, a paramedic for Bosnian troops. Fahrija Genic was a dermatologist who in America organized humanitarian aid for Bosnia and then returned to Sarajevo and opened a clinic. Jelka Kebo and her husband were artists and operated a gallery in Mostar (Bosnia). Now they operate a cultural center specializing in showing young people the social and cultural richness of pre-war Mostar. Kada Hotic, a Muslim, admits that she has lost faith and says, "I don't speak much to men."

This Was Not Our War is replete with quotes from scores of Yugoslavian women--Christians,
Muslims, Jews--and is a fine example of oral history. It is pertinent and ought to be acquired by all libraries of schools teaching twentieth century history, women's studies, religious studies, or multiculturalism.