March 8 and protest in Serbia: "Women will save the world"

A flower in one hand, a banner in the other. There is a whistle around the neck, and on the purple shirts there are badges with the words "Light strike" and "Women will save the world", it says Deutsche Welle (DW).

This is roughly what the marking will look like on Saturday International Women's Day in Serbia, which will take a slightly different form this year. In addition to the "Women in the Front Lines" protest and the March 8 March, and students during the blockade in Belgrade, they also called for a rally "Students and workers - side by side".

With this, they say, they want to support the workers who have been supporting them with their activities since the beginning of the student protests - for more than 100 days. The students called on the citizens to dress in purple on the occasion of the XNUMXth of March, as a symbol of the fight for gender equality.

Generational struggles

"It will be the strongest March 8th, I can't wait," says Jelena Vujanović, a student at the High Textile School for Design, Technology and Management in Belgrade, excitedly.

She proudly recalls that textile workers, seeking better working conditions, were the first to initiate large-scale demonstrations in America, which later gave rise to the celebration of International Women's Day.

Although she does not attach too much importance to this day, this Eighth of March will be special for Milica Ilić, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences. "It is a very nice feeling to be a student this year for the Eighth of March." Grandmothers greet us on the street and say that they are sorry that they did not have the opportunity to live in a moment when they can say their opinion and have their voice heard."

She believes that, thanks to the efforts of feminists in the past, significant progress has been made regarding women's rights in all fields. As he points out, this is perhaps best seen when he compares his upbringing to that of his mother, who continues to suffer the consequences of workplace inequality.

Even so, although she says she tries to maintain a positive attitude, she can't resist the impression that "we are witnessing a strong generational oppression of women" and that it will take "a long time to correct that, if we ever reach a stage where we are fully equal."

Plenums created a "synergy of the sexes"

Nevertheless, these blockades "created new energy and established a real synergy between the sexes", says Milica. With a smile, he recalls one plenum when a colleague stood up and said: "People, please let the girls do everything, they are so much more meticulous and organized than us."

Thus, the distribution of tasks at the faculties during the blockades is done according to abilities, and according to this young woman from Čačan, mostly female students are coordinators of work groups and more often in the role of orderlies than men.

"Colleagues see us as sisters, they turn to us for advice, they are happy to entrust us with everything they think we can do better, which is normal. I am in favor of not being measured by gender, but by willingness to work," the FPN student told DW.

Girls still in fear

Student protests restored faith in community and made the faculty a "safe oasis". But girls still feel unprotected on the street.

"I don't feel safe." Every evening when I return home, the keys are between my fingers, I turn every five meters. When I see a large group of guys in front of me in the dark, I cross the street, run or pretend to talk to someone on the phone," Angelina Terzić, a student at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Belgrade, told DW.

"March 8th means nothing to me and that I will receive a rose on that day, and on the other days you will treat us the same way and we will still be scared." I want a revolution, let the rose go, I'll buy it myself. It means nothing to me until something really changes in the system," she says.

This is, among other things, the reason why he supports student blockades. "I go to every protest with the thought - come what may. I can be beaten there, but let that happen," says Angelina. "I can no longer live in a system of lies and corruption." I would be ashamed to give birth to a child who will live in the same conditions in three or four years."

"The position of women in Serbia is not good, even decoratively"

As one of the strongest impressions from the blockades, our interlocutors point out the fearlessness of the orderlies, who are always in the front rows of every rally in the past three and a half months.

Jelena Vujanović from the High School of Textiles believes that it is no coincidence that the targets of attacks on demonstrators in the past months were girls, as even three female students suffered serious injuries during those attacks, and one of them had her jaw dislocated from the force of the blow with a bat.

"Serbia as a society has not yet achieved equal respect for women." "It happens that the citizens who come to the protest do not want to listen to the police officers, but move only when the male police officer comes," she says. "Add to that the platitude that we're the weaker sex, they probably think it's easier to hit a woman."

That's why sociologist Jelena Riznić, a member of the "Women's Solidarity" organization, hopes that the protests will strengthen the already brave female students who, once the blockades are over, "will find the strength to focus on issues that are specific to the position of women."

"The position of women in Serbia is not good, even decoratively. We witnessed the sexist statements of Serbian politicians in the Parliament in the previous days, not to mention topics such as sexual and obstetric violence and the position of women on the labor market," which is why "we should treat every day as the Eighth of March in a combative sense."

Gender (in)equality through statistics

In Serbia, since the beginning of the year, three women have been killed in domestic violence, and all three murders were committed by their sons. That is why during today's blockades there will be three minutes of silence longer than the usual fifteen minutes of silence.

From 2011 to 2023, 406 femicides, or gender-based murders, were registered, and more than 10.000 cases of violence against women are reported to the police annually.

Source: Deutsche Welle (DW)