prijava
SARAJEVO, June 5 (FENA) - The political party ‘Naša stranka’ (Our Party) today announced that it has launched initiatives across Bosnia and Herzegovina to prohibit and sanction sexual harassment in legislative bodies and institutions to send out a message to all women that they will not tolerate and will fight against such behavior in the workplace in the institutions.
As the representatives of the party stated at the press conference, the initiative aims to amend the code of ethics in the legislature bodies to explicitly prohibit sexual harassment.
“Our Party representatives have so far submitted the initiative in nine legislative bodies throughout BiH. The initiative has been adopted so far in the municipalities of Stari Grad, Novi Grad and the City of Sarajevo Administration. The only local authorities that refused to support it is Goražde, which is indicative because precisely in this local legislative body, our representative has suffered the most inappropriate verbal attacks by the municipal mayor,” said Vice President of Our Party Sabina Ćudić, presenting the results of the party's campaign in the field of combating sexual discrimination on the BiH political scene.
A representative from Goražde, Aldijana Smailhodžić spoke about her personal experience. The mayor of Goražde, Mehmed Ramović, has repeatedly expressed his intolerance towards her,” as she said.
“First, he threatened that he would transfer me to a distant outpatient clinic in Goražde, since I am a medical worker and has constantly threatened using his seniority and claiming how he is my boss. On the very day this initiative was submitted, he told that I should return to Višegrad, from where I was expelled during the war. There is no doubt that he feels free to offend me because I am a woman. Therefore, filing this initiative to me was as much of a political as it was a personal act for me to try to protect myself against harassment. Unfortunately, our initiative was rejected, and the mayor publicly opposed it,” said Smailhodžić.
Female deputies of Our Party have called on the public to get engaged, in a democratic way, to exhort pressure to sanction sexual harassment at each and every workplace, both in the public and private sectors, and to enable everyone to have a dignified atmosphere in the workplace altogether.
(FENA) S. R.
