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Đermana Kurić, Research Associate on the BILQIS project, has recently contributed to several academic and public discussions connected to Muslim women’s lived experiences, religious identity and access to justice in Europe.

Together with Amila Svraka-Imamović from the School of Law, University of Sarajevo, Đermana co-authored the Irish Centre for Human Rights blog post Courts and Headscarves in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Importance of Article 14. The post looks at the headscarf debate in Bosnia and Herzegovina in relation to the judiciary, with a focus on recent parliamentary discussions around the draft law on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Đermana also presented at the international conference Generations – Memory, Dialogue, Conflict,  held at New Bulgarian University in Sofia in cooperation with Balkanistic Forum. Her paper, “Being Muslim Behind ‘Your Four Walls’: Muslim Women in Socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina,” explored the strategies Bosniak Muslim women used in response to the socialist state’s suppression of religious and cultural practices. Based on ethnographic work and interviews with Bosniak Muslim women, the paper considered everyday practices around dress, food, names, prayer and family life, as well as the ways women navigated public and private life under Yugoslav state socialism. It also addressed state surveillance and the disciplining of family life, and highlighted experiences that have often been suppressed, omitted or silenced in accounts of everyday life during this period.

During her time in Bulgaria, Đermana also took part in a podcast hosted by Muslim students in Sofia, where she spoke about the BILQIS project and the lived experiences of Muslim women in Europe. You can find the full podcast here: #22 епизод: Предизвикателствата пред мюсюлманките в Европа

In a further podcast conversation with University of Galway LLM student Marlene Kulmus, Đermana discussed the intersections of Islamophobia and sexism, and their impact on Muslim women’s access to justice. The episode is available here.