Abstract: Sixteen years after the end of the war in the Balkans, Bosnia is still in a state of
devastation, and most of the women who were tortured and raped have received neither compensation
nor justice. This article contains the results of a study interviewing 21 Bosnian
women who were victims of rape or violence during the war, and 4 health workers and/or activists.
The purpose of the study was to explore these women’s lives: their health, their financial
state and living conditions, and whether they had received justice or not. Particular attention
was paid to the idea of a “social space” where the trauma caused by the violence suffered
can be worked through, and to the support the women were offered or refused. The picture
that emerges is one of women having to cope unaided with the dramatic consequences of the
violence suffered, almost always in isolation and poverty. The fact of the rapes, although
known by all, is still something which is not to be mentioned. This terrible silence prevents
the women from overcoming their trauma and beginning to recover, as well as from demanding
compensation and justice.
