dispose of their own property, but pursuant to
Sharì≠a law there were inequalities in their inheri-
tance rights. In addition, Muslim women were too
poorly educated and too isolated to be able to fully
enjoy the right to work. For the majority of rural
women, economic independence was impossible to
achieve.
As regards access to the Sharì≠a courts, Muslim
women also had difficulties in being represented; it
was not considered fitting for women to appear in
court. This was exacerbated by the fact that it was
unknown in the history of the Sharì≠a judiciary for
lawyers to represent their clients; as a result, the
lawyers who did so in the Sharì≠a courts were not
necessarily familiar with Sharì≠a law. Advocates’
unfamiliarity with Sharì≠a law as much as the igno-
rance of the women themselves undermined the
effectiveness of judicial protection.
1945–91: Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia
In common with other communist states and
countries in the region, women and men were de-
clared to be equal constitutionally and before the
law. This led to the abolition of the Sharì≠a courts
by a law enacted on 5 March 1946. Their jurisdic-
tion was transferred to the ordinary civil courts,
and civil law was applied to Muslims in matters of
personal and family status and inheritance. The
common feature was the separation of the state, and
its legal system, from religion and religious institu-
tions. For example, only marriages conducted by
the relevant state authorities were legally valid.
Religion and the culture associated with it still
had considerable influence on the private lives of
Muslims, though this differed in rural and urban
areas. In the case of Muslim women from rural
areas, it was reflected in their education levels. In
conservative rural areas there were even cases of
girls being kept out of school.
Although discrimination on the grounds of sex
was prohibited in principle, in practice women
failed to achieve full equality. The courts failed to
provide effective protection against discrimination
at work, sexual harrassment, or violence in the
family. Access to justice and effective legal protec-
tion were also made more difficult by the length of
time court proceedings took, lack of money to pay
for legal representation, ignorance of the law, and
women’s lack of education.
After 1991: the successor
countries
The common features of the region for this
period are the experience of war, and economic and
the balkans 371political transition. Gender analyses have shed light
on the still present equality gap between men and
women; studies have been written on the position
and problems of women in the transition period;
women’s groups have been formed to promote
women’s rights; and the process of adopting legis-
lation and other measures aimed at achieving gen-
der equality and equality of opportunity for men
and women is under way. As regards Bosnian
women, within the Muslim community there are
some small groups rethinking the position and
rights of women and applying the standards and
practice of other Islamic countries in the way they
dress, in relations between men and women, and in
married life and life in the community. The human
rights context is the expression of specific religious
features and cultural traditions. The current situa-
tion is characterized by constitutional and legal
equality and efforts to introduce mechanisms to
ensure equality of standing in practice. The grave
economic situation, the absence of legal and civic
education, and lack of self-confidence prevent
women from using existing legal mechanisms to
protect their rights on the one hand and ensure
their personal advancement on the other.BibliographyPrimary Sources
A. Bo∆iƒ, Position of women in private law [in Serbian],
Ph.D. diss., Faculty of Law, Belgrade University 1939.
Z. Grebo, Social policy of employment of women and
their social rights at work and in the family [in Bos-
nian], Ph.D. diss., Faculty of Political Sciences, Univer-
sity of Sarajevo 1971.
F. Kar∑iƒ, Sharì≠a courts in Yugoslavia, 1918–1941 [in
Bosnian], Sarajevo 1986.
F. Ko∆ul, Self-management and legal status of women in
Bosnia-Herzegovina [in Croatian], Ph.D. diss., Faculty
of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo 1972.
National report on implementation of the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women [in Serbo Croatian], Edvard Kardelj Yugoslav
Centre for the Theory and Practice of Self-Manage-
ment, Ljubljana 1985.
United Nations Development Programme, Human devel-
opment report 1988. Bosnia and Herzegovina, New
York 1988.
——, Human development report 2002. Bosnia and
Herzegovina, New York 2002, <http://www.undp.ba/
nhdr/NHDR2002ENG.pdf.>
Women’s human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
nationalNGO report published by a group of local
non-governmental organizations in cooperation with the
InternationalHuman Rights Law Group BiH Project,
Sarajevo 15 May 1999.Secondary Sources
B. Baranoviƒ, Images of women in textbooks[in Croa-
tian], Zagreb 2000.
T. Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian way, Princeton, N.J.
1995.