Forum / Women’s Bazaar

Forums ‘Straight from E(co) to W(omen)’ and ‘Sustainable Fashion – Do We Have an Alternative?’ will be held during the ‘Women’s Bazaar’ on the plateau in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina on 7 and 8 June at 7.30 p.m.

7 June / 7 p.m. – Forum ‘Straight from E(co) to W(omen)’

The idea of the discussion at the forum came from – flat like Vojvodina, flat as much as equal, equal importance and emphasis on both ecology and the position of women in society.
Interlocutors: Aleksandra Ilijan, Ruta 87, Nina Fuštar, Student Vice-Rector of the University of Arts in Belgrade (FMU), Aleksandra Jovanović, Novi Sad Initiative.
Moderator: Jelena Mirić/Jovana Mrdalj, Women’s Initiative
Aleksandra Ilijan is a long-term youth worker who lives and works in Novi Sad, but her women’s association Ruta 87 operates in the territory of the City of Zrenjanin. Since last month, the Women’s Initiative, with their help and the help from PERSU market, has managed to provide sanitary pads in high schools in the City of Zrenjanin until 2024.
Aleksandra Jovanović, a young girl on behalf of the Novi Sad Initiative, who deals with the topic in a different yet similar way compared to the Women’s Initiative.
Nina Fuštar, Student Vice-Rector of the University of Arts in Belgrade, who managed to provide hygienic pads for the entire University of Arts from the faculty budget.
The interlocutors include young high school students and female entrepreneurs.
Questions: Aleksandra Ilijan (Novi Sad)
1. Private companies have decided to be part of the project and to support young, women’s initiatives that have come to life in Vojvodina. What do you consider the biggest motivation for their involvement (promotion, women in leading positions, investing in youth, changes in society, etc.)?
2. Through a joint project with the Women’s Initiative, you managed to involve young high school students, representatives of school parliaments and student volunteers to become part of one big change. How many young people from Zrenjanin are involved, what are their motives, what are your experiences throughout the whole process and is this a good model for activating high school students to start thinking about improving their position in society ‘on time’?
3. How do high school students look at sanitary pads and the sustainability of the idea? What other activities did you have during the campaign with them? Do you only have female volunteers through the process of implementing the idea? Why is it important that this is not a taboo topic in high schools?
Questions: Aleksandra Jovanović (Novi Sad)
1. Novi Sad has become synonymous with initiatives. What motivated you to create the Novi Sad Women’s Initiative, and does the fact that you are a women’s association change your position when applying for projects and funds? Have you ever been degraded because of that and how difficult is it to get support for the above mentioned? (choice of topic, activities, plan, support of institutions, etc.)
2. How do the media report on women’s associations? What are your experiences? Is it difficult to reach certain media and would more media space contribute to more activists through various activities? Or, is it more individual how much we are interested as individuals in certain content?
3. What are your primary activities? How do you view women’s initiatives in our City, and how important is it to be supportive of each other through various projects?
Questions: Nina Fuštar (Belgrade)
1. In a short time, you managed with your team to provide funds for free sanitary pads at your faculty. What was the motive? How did the process go? How many female students do you have at the University, and how did the faculty management recognize the importance of the initiative itself?
2. How do students react to the idea? Is it a taboo topic among ‘artists’ or the need of every woman?
3. As a young person, you travel a lot and gather experiences from other people from other countries. What are your experiences? Are there any models that could be implemented in our country when we talk about reducing menstrual poverty? Can the position of a girl as a student representative change/improve women’s rights in colleges?
Common question:
Pink taxes, support from institutions and decision-makers for ‘women’s’ issues, taboo topics, lack of education and sex education, taxed luxury goods?
At the end of the conversation, questions from the audience follow.

8 June / 7.30 p.m. – Forum ‘Sustainable Fashion – Do We Have an Alternative?’

Interlocutors: Ana Trošić Trajković, designer, Tamara Rudić, Social Enterprise ‘Somborske šnajderke’, Marija Babović, Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade
Moderator: Ilijana Berber, journalist

Introduction: The textile industry has doubled in the last two decades. On that path with multiple accelerations, the consequences will inevitably remain. The economic crisis, but also the covid 19 pandemic, affected the work of women to a greater extent than men, experts confirmed by experts. How can we influence the initiation of some kind of activism in that sphere, that women become more involved in trade union work, that their voice is heard more, that they fight for their labour rights?

Thus, ‘fast fashion’ has reached the very top of the industries that pollute the planet the most. ‘Fast fashion’ is becoming synonymous with hyperconsumerism, low prices, inhumane conditions in which textile workers work, short product life. In contrast, ‘slow fashion’ advocates slowing down the production process, extending the life of textile products, respecting all norms that should be met when it comes to the conditions in which textile workers work. In short, slow fashion suggests replacing quantity with quality. The textile industry mostly employs women and we often have the opportunity to hear information about the poor working conditions.

Is it possible to do all this today: can we inspire women in the textile industry to fight harder for their labour rights, to take care of the environment, to adapt to modern living conditions that are faster and faster, can we turn to slow fashion if we are not aware enough or not aware at all? Do we know what the terms and phenomena of fast and slow fashion actually mean? How to educate ourselves as consumers, as well as women working in the textile industry? What are all the consequences for the environment,having in mind the fact that as many as 82 thousand tons of clothes are sold annually in Serbia? How much is textile waste?
Our interlocutors will also give answers to some of these questions.

The forums are held as a part of the Autonomous Festival of Women, which will be implemented during the Heroines programme arch.

Check out the whole ‘Autonomous Festival of Women’ programme at this link.

Erste Bank is the partner of the Heroines programme arch.

Photo: promo