Authors

Jasmina Gavrankapetanovic-Redzic¹;  ¹ Slavic-Eurasian Research Centre Hokkaido University, Japan

Discussion

The presentation analyses the publication titled Muslim Voice (Muslimanski glas), which was published by the Party of Democratic Progress (Stranka Demokratske Akcije, hereafter SDA) in preparation for the multi-party elections in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in November and December 1990. Following these elections, nationalist parties, namely the SDA, the Serbian Democratic Party (Srpska demokratska stranka, hereafter SDS) and the Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, hereafter HDZ), emerged victorious and ended the rule of the one-party Communist regime in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY, 1945-1991). The presentation first provides a detailed analysis of the Muslim Voice. It describes the physical object and its contents, divided into written and visual segments. Following Luc Pauwels’s understanding that “a sociology of visual is not only a method for sociology but also a way of thinking, conceptualizing and presenting ideas and findings” (2011, 13), this presentation engages with images and texts produced by the SDA as part of their first political campaign to understand better how the formulated ideas were communicated to the 2,300,000 voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time. Specifically, I propose to examine the SDA’s stances on social class, national belonging, gender and the role of religion as published in the Muslim Voice. Understanding which issues the SDA considered significant enough to be put forward in their first campaign and how these were addressed before the armed conflict is essential to understanding how, at that time, fringe SDA values, particularly those concerning nation, gender and religion, made their way to becoming widely accepted and acceptable after the war from 1995 to today. In addition, the analysis might shed light on how the SDA reinforced its position of dominance in Bosniak politics against the backdrop of the war and violence against Bosniaks between 1992 and 1995. It is crucial to remind ourselves that the warring parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, politically represented by the three nationalist parties, HDZ, SDS and SDA, respectively, played a pivotal role in reshaping the society according to their values, even when their political influence seems to be waning. Those values, often marginalised or overlooked under socialism, specifically ethno-nationalism based on confessionalism, took centre stage. The shift from communist dogma, which had dominated all aspects of social life from 1945 till 1991, to religious dogma had far-reaching consequences on the understanding of social class, national belonging, gender and the role of religion in social and cultural life after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.