Authors
Jelena Gajic1; 1 Charles University, UK Discussion
This research focuses on the educational practices pertaining to the Muslim girls and women in the immediate post-Second World War period in socialist Yugoslavia. The new communist government introduced mandatory elementary education for everyone, including the Muslim girls. New schools were entirely secular, and students were encouraged to continue with their education further. Moreover, the new regime banned the veil, since the newly established socialist government considered veiling as ‘backward’, and as an obstacle that prevented Muslim women from reaching their full potential. Utilising the Anti-fascist women’s front (AFŽ), an all-women organisation established by the KPJ in 1942, the Communist Party was trying to persuade the Muslim communities to allow girls and women to receive education and become participating members of the socialist society. This emancipatory narrative has been disseminated not only through large-scale educational campaigns organised by the AFŽ, that also encompassed the anti-veiling sentiment, but also through the media. This part of the research will scrutinize press articles from the relevant magazines such as Zora (Dawn), Žena danas (Woman Today) and Islamski Glasnik (Islamic Gazette) pertaining to the education of the Muslim girls and women in general, anti-veiling campaigns, educational policies and international influences. The analysis reveals how the Party imagined Muslim women’s emancipation through education. It shows strong words of e 
