International Women’s Day 2021

Head held high, walking with dignity, Meliha Varesanovic defies Bosnian Serb sniper bullets and mortar fire in high heels, pearls and a smart floral dress in the Dobrinja neighbourhood of Sarajevo, June 1995. During the siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina more than 10,600 people were killed and 56,000 wounded, many maimed or invalided for life. “I didn’t carry weapons but I did fight – with my defiance, my dignity, my refusal to run – with all these things I fought. My behaviour and way of dressing was my way of saying to the gunmen ‘You will never win!’”