Degrading phrases about Bosnian women are superimposed over a black and white photograph of the artist staring straight at the viewer. Taken from a graffiti written by an unknown Dutch soldier in 1994/5, a member of the Royal Netherlands Army who were responsible for protecting the Srebrenica safe area as part of the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-95. The artist’s gaze is unflinching, direct and challenges not just the words pushed onto her, and all Bosnian women, but invites us to see their new form of identity – where victimhood and prejudice, the past and the future are intertwined in co-existing opposition.

Originally a series of posters publicly displayed on the anniversary of the Srebenica genocide in 2003, this work has become iconic of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, a direct confrontation of war crimes committed against women and the prejudices that came during and after it.

“We live in a constant war where the female body is used as a territory. ‘Bosnian Girl’ is not me but any girl or woman… anyone whose rights are denied. This work comes from Bosnia but it tells a universal story of prejudice and bigotry.”

— Šejla Kamerić