Osvitanje - Prvo udruženje muslimanki u Bosni i Hercegovini
Osvitanje - The First Muslim Women's Association in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Osvitanje, the first association of Muslim/Bosniak women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was established in Sarajevo in the beginning of 1919. Its establishment was initiated by Bosniak women-intellectuals from Sarajevo: Hasnija Berberović, Rasema Bisić, Almasa Iblizović, Šefika Bjelevac, Umija Vranić and Asifa Širbegović. These are the goals cited in the Association’s Rules: cultural and educational transformation, economic prosperity of Bosniak women, fight against detrimental customs and the preservation of moral values, as well as emancipation and affirmation of women’s rights and values. In the realisation of these proclaimed goals, Osvitanje undertook different actions, such as manufacture and trade activities, craft vocational school, library, literacy courses, exhibitions of handiwork, weekly meetings, literary contributions of women authors in publications, as well as religious educational programs. Members of this association and its management included educated and wealthy wives of renowned and influential Bosniak intellectuals, civil servants and businessmen. A significant number of them were teachers, while there were also two poetesses - Nafija Sarajlić and Šefika Bjelevac. The Association proclaimed its modern views of the approach to the issue of status of Bosniak women. The Association was active between 1919 and 1930/31, whereas an attempt of its re-activation in mid-1936 failed. Its contribution to the emancipation and affirmation of Bosniak women was invaluable, yet more modest and less significant than the results of other Bosniak associations of that period, such as Gajret or Narodna Uzdanica.

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