The interview narrative upon which this art artifact is based was shared by The Global Women's Narratives Project. The segments in quotes below are the direct words of the interviewee, Dzenana.

Dzenana* grew up in the southern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina where she lived on her family’s farm harvesting honey. It was “a peaceful environment” where all peoples, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, “lived side by side.” She “never knew the difference between Serbians and Catholics or the other ones” as they all “lived side by side.” Everyone “lived together, went to work, came home, and lived their lives.” So growing up, “everything was beautiful, everything was fine” and everyone “had peace of mind.”

Just when she thought she would live peacefully for the rest of her life, the Bosnian War erupted “overnight.” Dzenana was immediately affected by the onset of war because of the location of her home. The first rounds of ethnic cleansing occurred in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina’s because these regions were less populated and people live in dispersed locations, which allowed for systemic mass killings and rapes to happen before they were recognized as such. So all of a sudden, like a “flip,” she was thrown into a chaos of confusion and violence where “one day (she) live(d) in peace, and then the following days, they [Serbian soldiers] put the barricades up and you see snipers on the homes, on the buildings, killing and shooting.” Not knowing at all the cause or the circumstances that led to the war, Dzenana, along with her neighbors, breathed in fear as they constantly asked, “what is this and what do we even do with ourselves?” In the midst of the turmoil, Dzenana witnessed her cousin’s six-year-old girl get raped by the Serbian soldiers.

As the violence began and affected the neighboring towns as well, Dzenana ran. She vividly remembers the first night she slept in the forest of snow-capped mountains. She didn’t have her blankets, so she very badly wanted to start a fire. But a fire would alert the soldiers of her location just like how the orange light and the cloud of smoke from the soldiers’ fire revealed where they were stationed. She slept shivering in cold and fear. Not long after, she was captured by the Serbian soldiers and taken hostage into “strictly [a] women’s center” or a concentration camp, where she, along with other women as old as 70 and as young as 4, experienced boundless sexual and physical abuse for three consecutive years.

Despite the horrendous physical and sexual abuse she faced while being held hostage during the war, Dzenana continues to approach life with a nurturing demeanor. After being released from the concentration camp by being accidentally exchanged for a Serbian hostage and brought into Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina), she founded and co-runs an orphanage to provide basic needs, support, and education to children whose families cannot adequately support them. Her hope is to reunite the children with their families when the parents or guardians have the means. Since founding the orphanage-like-home, she has reunited 15-20 children with their families. Without a bit of a hesitation, she identifies herself as “a mother,” which is “the biggest, the most huge thing” (“velko” in Bosnian, which is a strong word used to capture something that means big, biggest, the most).

Dzenana says that being a mother “is tough. It’s a huge responsibility. It’s a huge sacrifice for (her).” Nevertheless, claiming it her “destiny to be here for these kids, for these innocent lives,” she firmly grounds herself in motherhood and service. Choosing to “give constantly, constantly, constantly” without ever being “focused on (her)self” for the remainder of her life, she confirms who she truly is– a selfless mother, “a huge umbrella.”

We wish Dzenana all the best on her journey, and thank her for letting us be a part of it. We hope that all who engage in her story witness the resilient, courageous and compassionate individual she is. We also hope that it encourages them to find their strength and inner peace in being the beloved people they have always been meant to be.

*In order to remain anonymous, this woman has chosen the pseudonym Dzenana.


Please click on the black rectangle below to play the artifact. It is audio-only.