Amra Babic, the newly elected mayor of the Bosnian town of Visoko, is the first mayor to wear hijab. She has become the first mayor in Bosnia and Europe to wear hijab.
“This is a model for Europe but even beyond, for the East and the West which meet here in Bosnia,” said Amra Babic, who is a member of Bosnia’s main Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA), on October 9.
The 43-year-old won 30 per cent of the votes in the October 7 local elections in Visoko, a town of some 40,000 inhabitants near the capital city of Sarajevo. “Islam is very clear regarding the woman. It reserves for her a place in the public life and all those who interpret it correct know that this is the way it is,” she stated.
A mother of three and an economist, Babic added, “I believe that my headscarf should not be a hindrance… Europe will understand that it has to do with people who respect their own identity, but who are tolerant enough to respect the rights of others.”
Muslims are the biggest religious group in Bosnia and make up about 40 per cent of the country’s population of 3.8 million.
The hijab was banned under Communism when Bosnia was part of the federal Yugoslavia from 1945 until the early 1990s.