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Stef O’ Driscoll (award-winning theatre director) and Mark Griffin (St Mary’s University College, London), friends I’ve made through my thespian daughter, are off to Sarajevo on Friday. They want to dramatise some of the wonderful stories in Miljenko Jergovic’s Sarajevo Marlboro, a collection of short stories on how the young people of Sarajevo from the different communities – Croats, Serbs and Bosniacs – helped each other to survive during the siege. They plan to stage performances in London and in Bosnia.
They’ll spend much of their time listening, I suspect, and it will be hard.
Amila and Niko at Blackburn Cathedral
We had a wonderful time in London this evening with some of the Bosnians who have been taking part in the Forgiveness Project exhibition at Blackburn Cathedral. They fly home tomorrow morning. Stef met Silva (a young woman from the Croat community), Amila (who teaches English in Tuzla and is connected to the beautiful madrassa there) and Niko (Deputy Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Tuzla area).
In a wholly uninspiring hotel lobby, conversation ranged from the dreadful and continuing pain of multiple and unexplainable bereavement, to justice denied, the thirst in Bosnia for creativity, beauty and the arts, the power of women’s stories and of the life-giving and transformative possibilities of carefully devised theatre. It’s impossible to have conversations like these with our Bosnian friends without a great deal of laughter, too – I love it.
I also caught sight of Chris and Anjum from Blackburn Cathedral, who worked hard to bring our Bosnian friends to the UK. We’re hoping that the final report of the original UK visit in October 2009 will be the kind of document that people will say, “If you’re going to Bosnia, read this”.
Young women at the madrassa's mosque
Places in madrassas here in Bosnia are highly sought after. A third of the curriculum is religion-based and there are options to learn Latin, Persian or Turkish. The madrassa we visited today was built about 12 years ago and designed by an award winning architect. There are about 480 boarding students, young men and women 14-18 years of age. Many of the students will progress to leadership roles within Islam, so in some ways it is like a theological college.
Design on mosque carpet
The place was unbelievably clean and tidy for a college full of teenagers! The most beautiful part was the mosque, which is open to everyone for prayer. It has white walls and a creamy carpet (not green) with a symbolic design on it representing water, warmth, the sun and life – instead of lines or prayer-mat shapes to guide worshippers. The mosque is light-filled and designed to appeal to young people.
One of our group addressed the young people after lunch-time prayers
The discussion with the Director and his staff team ranged from the challenge of educating and looking after young people at the height of their energies and while their personality was being formed to the differences between madrassas in Britain and Bosnia. Bosnian Muslims are part of the indigenous population and have been worshipping for hundreds of years, continuing even when the Austro-Hungarians assumed power. They have a great ease and confidence in their tradition. The Imams wear suits, ties and tidy haircuts like other men here – I haven’t seen any with long beards or wearing particular clothes for prayer. The Mufti this evening wore a black robe and cylindrical white hat to show his position, but the regular Imams are indistinguishable by dress from other Bosnian men. Women pray in the mosque with men, not behind screens, but they are not obliged to attend Friday prayers.
The staff at the madrassa were interested in British madrassas and one of our party said that they were very mixed – some were excellent, others mixed Koranic teaching with dubious politics. Our Bosnian friends pointed out that the search for identity of first, second and third generation migrants inevitably got mixed up with the expression of religious tradition. Bosnia itself may be unstable politically, but Bosnian Muslim tradition is secure and confident.
Given the painful recent history for each of the three communities here (Muslim Bosniac, RC Croat and Serbian Orthodox), it was good to have the local Serbian Orthodox priest with us all day today as we visited Muslim projects and mosques. The Roman Catholic member of the Bosnian team was not able to join us – a special festival relating to St Francis takes place today and tomorrow. Tuzla has had an imams and priests (RC and Orthodox) football match! This is obviously becoming a global phenomenon – Clapham & Stockwell Faith Forum, Balham & Tooting Community Association and Tuzla!
We have met wonderful women in Bosnia
A month ago, there was an unpleasant incident in Tuzla when a Christian nun was verbally attacked in public by Muslims. The Federation of Women (a Muslim women’s group which draws women from all the mosque congregations in Tuzla) supported the nun and issued a public statement denouncing the incident. It was the combination of personal support and public action at the right time which made this a very effective rebuttal. When it comes to new or risky multi-faith activities, it is sometimes easier for women to take the lead – we are less likely to be in senior positions (of any world faith) and can organise under the radar.
The deep respect shown by men towards women within the Muslim community here is striking.
Mayor of Tuzla
Today everything shifted gear. We (now warmly welcomed as a delegation) met the Mayor of Tuzla, a large town in the north of the Federation entity of Bosnia (Bosniac majority), which was traditionally a salt mining town (tuz means salt). Local TV cameras and photojournalists were busy. We had heard from the Defence Attache at the UK Embassy that the Bosnian administrative apparatus was so large that it was debilitating for the economy. It was interesting to hear a local politician explain things from his point of view. He said the Dayton agreement ended the war and everyone is thankful for that. However, the huge government apparatus (based on two entities and many cantons in each entity) was now a burden and that the constitution needs to be revised to suit the needs of the country today. There are 14 Prime Ministers, 200 Ministers and 500 MPs for a country with a relatively small population. He joked that in Britain you can live and die without meeting a government minister, whereas in Bosnia every other person is a minister or about to become one. These individuals are reluctant to advocate a slimming down of the system because they would lose their status and generous salary.
This week is a key time for Bosnia because the EU and USA are meeting members of the Bosnian government to discuss possible amendments to the consitution. The Mayor was unhappy that no hint of the proposals had been released prior to this important meeting.
