Croatia social briefing: The Emergence of Regional Me Too Movement in the Western Balkans

ISSN: 2560-1601

                                                                                          Vol. 38, No. 3 (HR)

                                                                                                   March 2021

                                           Croatia social briefing:
     The Emergence of Regional Me Too Movement in the Western
                                                  Balkans
                                              Valentino Petrović

                                                                   1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

                                                                   +36 1 5858 690
Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft.
                                                                   office@china-cee.eu
Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin
Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping                              china-cee.eu

2017/01

The Emergence of Regional Me Too Movement in the Western
                                            Balkans

      Summary

      In this paper, we shall discuss the recent emergence of the regional Me Too movement in
Western Balkans countries as well as the "I did not ask for it" Facebook initiative that took
place after a Serbian actress Milena Radulović publicly said that she was raped by her acting
professor. Furthermore, we shall present the opinion of Croatian-American professor, Mala
Matacin, on gender (in)equality and comment on a brief internet debate between Croatian
journalist and novelist, Vedrana Rudan, and the President, Zoran Milanović.

      Introduction

      March 8th, marked International Women's Day, a date which is often celebrated by both
men and women whose aim is to emphasize the values of emancipation, equality, and respect
that everyone is supposed to adhere to in order to achieve a just and better society where all
individuals will be guaranteed their rights as human beings no matter of their gender.
Unfortunately, this date seems to be relevant only when male spouses bring some flowers to
their wives and when everyone is talking about much-needed equality in newspapers, media,
and the internet. As soon as this is behind us, it appears as everything is coming back to
"normality" where women are still facing various kinds of discrimination and disrespect
whether in their private lives or professional duties.

      The Effects of Me Too Movement

      This year, however, is somewhat different on the account of numerous testimonies from
victims of sexual abuse who decided to share their sufferings and address these issues primarily
via social media, encouraged after a Hollywood producer and predator Harvey Weinstein was
sentenced to 23 years in prison following his arrest under the charges of sexual abuse allegation
that date back to 1970s and 1980s. The regional "Me Too" movement, as it is addressed by the
people from the Balkans, began to circulate in the public sphere when the Facebook page “I did
not ask for it” (Croatian translation: “Nisam tražila”) was “launched by four former Sarajevo

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Academy of Dramatic Arts students – Ana Tikvić, Nadine Mičić, Asja Krsmanović, and Matea
Mavrak”1. The number of allegations for sexual harassment skyrocketed in Croatia too, with
many politicians feeling that concrete actions are needed, apart from ceremonial and kind words
of solidarity and togetherness.

       The Experiences of Croatian-American Psychology Professor

       Before we tackle specific aspects of everything that has happened in the past few weeks
and months regarding numerous allegations of sexual misconduct that included allegations
against university professors as well, we shall briefly present the interview given by Croatian-
American psychology professor Mala Matacin who spoke about gender (in)equality in Croatia
and compared her experiences while living in Croatia to her previous findings in the United
States. What Matacin underlined as the most shocking, was the fact the MeToo movement
arrived relatively late in Croatia. She said: “In the United States, the movement exploded in
2017 and was very much part of the country’s narrative but I found it surprisingly absent in
Croatia. Instead, I learned about the #spasime (English translation: save me – brackets are not
included in the original quotation) movement which is centered around domestic violence (very
much focused on the family unit)”2. In Croatia, there are certain non-governmental
organizations whose paramount mission is to fight inequalities, especially the ones regarding
gender inequality. However, their work is often marginalized or, better to say, their actions are
not visible enough to produce a concrete answer that would be implemented by the top-down
approach, meaning that every change in people’s behavior and perception of gender inequality
or sexual harassment, would imply a preventive change in national legislation which still does
not protect the victims of sexual abuse well enough. It now appears that every change needs to
be addressed first from the bottom-up perspective which includes the creation of movements
such as "I did not ask for it" or #spasime and their subsequent application into the nation-wide
mindset.

       Unfortunately, even the bottom-up approach proves to be ineffective due to the fact that
many victims of family violence or sexual abuse are not trusted and their sufferings are
diminished. Matacin said that “victim-blaming is an example of something called the
‘fundamental attribution error’ (or correspondence bias) which is our tendency to blame

1
  N.N. 2021. Over 30 Sexual Harassment Complaints Made in Croatia. Total Croatia News
 https://www.total-croatia-news.com/news/50095-over-30-sexual-harassment-complaints-made-in-croatia
2
  Kruljac, Ivor. 2021. Croatian-American Psychology Professor Mala Matacin on Gender Equality in Croatia. Total Croatia News
 https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/51218-mala-matacin

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individuals rather than the circumstances or situation (…) Victim-blaming shifts responsibility
away from the perpetrator (…) in the case of domestic violence, instead of asking ‘why does
she stay?’, we should be asking ‘why does he hit her?’”3. Following this example, the most
usual question when it comes to women who publicly disclosed the perpetrators has been: Why
did she not report it earlier? Why was she waiting for 20 or 30 years to go out publicly with her
sufferings? Some comments even go so far as to ask: What did she get in return to keep her
voice quiet? This is, of course, the simplification of the whole issue, and those who tend to
comment on this matter by asking the above-mentioned question are either not well informed
or lack apathy for victims. Mala Matacin concluded her interview with an interesting
observation regarding her marital status when comparing Croatia to the United States. "Initially,
I was taken aback by questions about my marital status (for example, 'where is your husband?')
or why I was in the country by myself. Such questions are not normally asked of me in the US,
particularly among people who I meet in casual, public spaces. Yet, in Croatia they seemed
natural and okay to ask – it felt unsettling to me"4.

       The Regional Movement and Croatia

       In the Balkans region, everything started when Serbian actress Milena Radulović
disclosed that she was raped by her former acting professor Miroslav Mika Aleksić while she
was only seventeen years old. She was accompanied by several other actresses who were not
raped, but sexually molested by Aleksić. Radulović was cited: “The scariest thing is that
everything was prepared for years, from early childhood, by a single monster, and the rest of
the girls and I cannot let anyone else go through the same as we did. This is not revenge, even
though that phase in me existed, but it was long overdue. All of us, the victims of Miroslav
Aleksić, are going in this because it is intolerable to remain silent even for one day”5. This
testimony ignited the regional initiative that reached Croatian borders too. Interestingly enough,
Vedrana Rudan, a Croatian journalist and novelist and a vocal advocate of women's rights in
the country's public arena, commented in early 2019 that the Me Too movement, as it was
originally conceived and created in the United States, would be impossible to imagine in

3
  Kruljac, Ivor. 2021. Croatian-American Psychology Professor Mala Matacin on Gender Equality in Croatia. Total Croatia News
 https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/51218-mala-matacin
4
  Kruljac, Ivor. 2021. Croatian-American Psychology Professor Mala Matacin on Gender Equality in Croatia. Total Croatia News
 https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/51218-mala-matacin
5
  Samaržija, Nikolina. 2021. Ispovijest Milene Radulović da ju je silovao učitelj glume šokirala je sve, a ona sada
poručuje: 'Moje je bilo da ne šutim'. tportal https://www.tportal.hr/showtime/clanak/ispovijest-milene-radulovic-
da-ju-je-silovao-ucitelj-glume-sokirala-je-sve-a-ona-sada-porucuje-moje-je-bilo-da-ne-sutim-20210119

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Croatia. In her argumentation, Rudan used the analogy of Catholic priests who are accused of
pedophilia and eventually did not pay for their sins but were left free. By using this example,
she underlined that family violators and perpetrators in Croatia would never be summoned to
justice. In addition, Rudan said that women in Croatia are not only endangered in their
workplace or while performing professional duties; she explained that every time a man wants
to have an oppressive act against women, he can do so6. We could argue against the magnitude
of this vivid comparison and while Rudan has a point in explaining the systemic issues that are
still present in Croatia, we could say that in the long-term period she was wrong, especially
after a vast number of women exposed their experiences on the Facebook page "I did not ask
for it". This sounded an alert in Croatia as well. "The Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb has
received 27 complaints of sexual harassment and molestation, while two professors at Zagreb's
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine have been
suspended", while "earlier this week the border police commissioner in Gruda, Matko Klarić,
was fired for sexually harassing his female subordinates”7.

      Conclusion

      The aforementioned Rudan recently entered a debate with President Zoran Milanović for
his comments that sexual harassment is conditioned by social status or professional hierarchy.
The President stated that women who work at junior positions in academia, administration, or
as secretaries would face more often with abuse than those who work at higher positions. His
comments were condemned by the vast majority of people, including Rudan, but he stayed by
his position. Finally, we could only hope that the online movement and public discussion on
this matter would not end after a few weeks and that more and more women would be
encouraged and protected in their attempts to shed light on this issue.

6
  Benčić, Luka. 2019. VEDRANA RUDAN #MeToo pokret u Hrvatskoj je nemoguć. Žene u ovoj zemlji nemaju
moć, njihovo me mirenje sa sudbinom dovodi do riganja. Jutarnji.hr
https://www.jutarnji.hr/kultura/knjizevnost/vedrana-rudan-metoo-pokret-u-hrvatskoj-je-nemoguc-zene-u-
ovoj-zemlji-nemaju-moc-njihovo-me-mirenje-sa-sudbinom-dovodi-do-riganja-8234048
7
  N.N. 2021. Over 30 Sexual Harassment Complaints Made in Croatia. Total Croatia News
 https://www.total-croatia-news.com/news/50095-over-30-sexual-harassment-complaints-made-in-croatia

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