WE, THE WOMEN OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, UNITED AND SOLIDARITY, SAY:
None more!
Another woman was killed in Bihać this week. Her killer was not immediately caught. According to unofficial and incomplete statistics, more than sixty women have been killed since 2017. We don’t even know how many of them lost their lives in silence.
Together, we are here to say – enough!
Enough terror against women! Enough of silent observation as we perish in our homes and on the streets of our cities. The places that should be the safest are our cages and our execution grounds.
It wasn’t a family tragedy – it was a murder. It is not an accident – it is murder. Not a crime of passion, but a femicide. A woman was killed for being a woman. Because we are seen as consumable goods.
We are here to say – we are not your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters. We are nobody’s private property. We are our own, noisy and determined to defend each other.
We are here to say that we are not guilty! No woman, ever, anywhere, is to blame for being beaten, raped, killed. It is the fault of abusive men and the institutions that protect them. In every neighborhood, every street, every haustor, whether she is at home, at work, in class or out for a walk, right now some woman is suffering violence or is a potential new victim. Violence against women is not a private matter. We will not just wait our turn.
We will not be silent any longer. Together we say – these are our bodies, they do not belong to you. These are our lives, you cannot take them away and humiliate them.
Femicide knows no borders. It does not know about age, skin color, religious, ethnic or national affiliation, place of residence. In every part of the planet, both then and now, violent men tell women – you are only good if you are dead.
And we say – none more! We will not live in fear. We will not die in silence.
WE DEMAND
– Introducing the legal definition of femicide.
– Introduction of femicide as a criminal offense in all legal and by-laws.
– Urgent harmonization of criminal laws with the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) and revising penal practices.
-Ensuring prevention and protection of violence against women through competent institutions and multi-sector protocols.
-Consistent application of the law also in cases of death as a consequence of domestic violence, the perpetrator should be judged according to the provisions of the law, which will establish a more severe punishment.
ON FRIDAY, AT 3:00 PM, WE GO OUT FOR EACH OTHER AND FOR ALL THOSE WHO ARE NO LONGER WITH US.
WE STAND SOLIDARITY WITH THE WOMEN OF SERBIA AND KOSOVO WHO ALSO TOOK THE STREETS.
OUR PAIN IS YOUR SHAME!
