Negotiating Interests: Women and Nationalism in Serbia and Croatia,1990-1997

Delija Štrbaja, 41 year old mother of two, was working in a sugar factory in the Vojvodinan town of Žabalj when the war with Croatia broke out in the summer of 1991. During the first two months of the conflict, Delija nervously awaited the moment when her husband, Zoran, would be called up to serve in the Yugoslav army. He too waited and spent many long hours with a friend who had fled Osijek, discussing the conflict and endlessly debating what should be done about it. Delija listened to them daily as she also stayed informed through the news media. Finally, she said, she could take it no longer and told them, “Ok boys, since you won't do it, I'm going off to enlist. I will fight in your place.” Delija did enlist and served 46 days on the front line of the conflict in Banija, from September 25 to November 11, 1991. Fifteen of those days she spent with a rifle in her hands until the captain persuaded her to organize and run the unit's medical section.