Bosnia’s invisible children: living in dignity | DW documentary ▶️

October 26, 2019 | During the war in Yugoslavia, thousands of Bosnian women were raped and many became pregnant as a result. But their children are even now not recognized as war victims. The NGO “Forgotten Children of War” aims to change that.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, they are known as nevidljiva djeca: “invisible children.” Their mothers were raped by enemy soldiers during the war in Yugoslavia – and sometimes also by UN peacekeepers. The Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences estimates that between 2,000 and 4,000 Bosnian children were born after their mothers had been raped during the war. Often marginalized and stigmatized by society, many of these “invisible children” who are now young adults have led miserable lives.

Ajna Jusić is the daughter of a Bosnian Muslim woman who was raped by a Croatian soldier during the conflict. For years she knew nothing of her mother’s ordeal. But now her NGO “Forgotten Children of War” wants to bring these “invisible children” together and give them a voice. She says it is a matter of recognition and respect and is pressing the Bosnian government to officially recognize them as war victims.

Grbavica is a 2006 film by Jasmila Žbanić about the life of a single mother in contemporary Sarajevo in the aftermath of systematic rapes of Bosniak women by Serbian soldiers during the Bosnian War. It was released in the United Kingdom as Esma’s Secret: Grbavica, and in US as Grbavica: Land of My Dreams.

The title refers to the neighbourhood of Sarajevo where Esma lives, which was one of the most traumatized neighbourhoods in the city.