Born in a small river town in the largely Muslim province of 
Sandzak, Munevera Hadzisehovic grew up in an area sandwiched 
between the Orthodox Christian regions of Montenegro and Serbia, 
cut off from other Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her story 
takes her reader from the urban culture of the early 1930s through 
the massacres of World War II and the repression of the early 
Communist regime to the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 
1990s. It sheds light on the history of Yugoslavia from the interwar 
Kingdom to the breakup of the socialist state.

    In poignant detail, Hadzisehovic paints a picture not only of her 
own life but of the lives of other Muslims, especially women, in an 
era and an area of great change. Readers are given a loving yet 
accurate portrait of Muslim customs pertaining to the household, 
gardens, food, and dating—in short, of everyday life.

    Hadzisehovic writes from the inside out, starting with her 
emotions and experiences, then moving outward to the facts that 
concern those interested in this region: the role of the Ustashe, 
Chetniks, and Germans in World War II, the attitude of Serb-
dominated Yugoslavia toward Muslims, and the tragic state of 
ethnic relations that led to war again in the 1990s.

    Some of Hadzisehovic’s experiences and many of her views will 
be controversial. She speaks of Muslim women’s reluctance to give 
up the veil, the disapproval of mixed marriages, and the problems 
between Serb and Croat nationalists. Her benign view of Italian 
occupation is in stark contrast to her depiction of bloodthirsty 
Chetnik irregulars. Her analysis of Belgrade’s Muslims suggests 
that class differences were just as important as religious affiliation. 
In this personal, yet universal story, Hadzisehovic mourns the loss 
of two worlds—the orderly Muslim world of her childhood and the 
secular, multi-ethnic world of communist Yugoslavia.

_________________________________________________________

MUNEVERA HADZISEHOVIC was born in Prijepolje in 1933 and 
lives in Garfield, New Jersey. She earned a Ph.D. in physics at the
University of Belgrade and worked at the Vinca Nuclear Institute
south of Belgrade.


Number Twenty-four: Eastern European Studies


What people are saying about this book

“. . . blends a participant's informed observations with 
intensely personal experiences to produce a trove of informative 
insights into life in twentieth century Yugoslavia.”—Robert Donia
	
“. . . a record of how one woman coped with injustice and 
survived—without seeking revenge and without allowing herself to 
be crushed by bitterness. What apparently kept her going was her 
refusal to be crushed, her spirit of defiance.”—Sabrina P. Ramet,
from the foreword