SVETLANA DOJCINOVIC
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“The power of darkness“
This work is an unworthy homage to all brave women in conflict and war zones.
Great wars have marked the last century, while conflicts are still raging today in various parts of our planet. Degradation of humanity is present in countries affected by conflicts and war.
The project shows the darkness counting in our very existence and a destructive influence of social conflicts on women, but respects their great strength, thirst for life, sublimated in their will to survive. Showing human evil through victim’s stories, „The power of darkness“ opens up to the important topics of the theory of war, such as rape as the weapon of war, violence targeting only women and post-conflict conditions for victims, that usually push women into a deeper inferno. Sexual violence is certainly the most horrific, the most heinous violence, which leaves an indelible mark and deep traumas on victims.
Rape as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity and must be treated that way. Raped women are often marked as “dirty and undesirable”. Traumatized and disgraced, it is very hard for these women to find support, as they are being humiliated and rejected even by their families. Since the rapes are massive, we have entire communities destroyed, and the foundations of entire societies destroyed, collapsing before our eyes.
Women from conflict zones struggle with both psychological and physical trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder requires serious and long-term treatment, treatment of the entire societies, not only women who have survived the trauma. In that way the weakening of the society, which could oppose the conflict because the foundation of the society is being destroyed. Judith Gardner states women are often systematically raped to give birth to children who will belong to the rapist clan, and it is said that in the traditional society of Somalia, a raped woman is socially dead. Women do not trust the judiciary, they do not trust the state, because there is absolute lawlessness in the conflict zones, therefore most victims remain silent.
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Hamida and her daughter with son in their house in IDP camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan
October 04, 2019They are from Kunduz province, but the house was bombed by the Taliban. "They want to kill us all... we had to run", she says. -
Sheika, 21, in their house in IDP camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan
October 04, 2019She is from Kunduz. With her family she flee to Pakistan. But after came with her husband to Kabul, where he tries to get a job and pay for their children's documents, so they can be together. -
Luz Daniela cries while talking about the murder of her brother in front of her two children inside their house on the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia on February 13, 2020
Colombia has the largest number of internally displaced people in the world, with more than 8 million registered in the country and over 500,000 Colombian returnees from Venezuela. As the Venezuelan crisis deepens, many have left the country and found their new home in Colombia. Colombia now hosts nearly 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and thousands of people still enter the country through legal and illegal entry points along the border. Colombia’s ongoing violence and displacement are putting an increasing strain on already overwhelmed State capacities. Many of them found a home in Soacha, an infamous neighbourhood on the outskirts of Bogota, where security is always an issue. -
A girl named Tasmin with her baby in front of the house in the refugee camp, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
August 03, 2018
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A baby sleeping inside the house in the refugee camp
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A girl holding a baby in the refugee camp
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An albino woman holds a baby in her house in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
August 03, 2018 -
Momtaz, 30years old, crying in her home in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh
August 02, 2018Momtaz looks much older than 30.Her husband and younger child were murdered in front of her, her older daughter was beaten and Momtaz was gang-raped, beaten and left unconscious in a house that was set on fire. But she survived. "When will we get the justice?" she was asking, holding the group lawsuit paper for the ICC court in her tiny hands. She told me that all she wants is to die.August 02, 2018She was made to watch as all the children from her village are murdered by the militia and thrown into the river. The militia then took all the jewellery from the women and took them to houses where they were all raped. She escaped to the river, from where she went to MSF hospital, where she found her husband. -
Mumtaz showing scars on her daughter's head in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
August 02, 2018She was made to watch as all the children from her village are murdered by the militia and thrown into the river. The militia then took all the jewellery from the women and took them to houses where they were all raped. She escaped to the river, from where she went to MSF hospital, where she found her husband. -
R. Khatun, 25 years old, showing the scar in her house in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
August 02, 2018She was made to watch as all the children from her village are murdered by the militia and thrown into the river. The militia then took all the jewellery from the women and took them to houses where they were all raped. She managed to escape to the river, from where she went to MSF hospital, where she found her husband. -
Engida from Eritrea in front of Department of Refugee Affairs in Nairobi, Kenya
November 24, 2014Engida was gang raped by military in front of her son, while her husband is still missing. She run with her son to Nairobi, Kenya, and at DRA they were asking for documents. At the hospital Engida found out she was infected with AIDS. "What will be with my son when I die?", she kept asking. -
Haleda, 16, in her house in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
August 03, 2018As the light softly revealed her face in a dark room of her house in Balukhali camp, she gently raised her skirt. She wanted to show me where the pain is coming from. She has been shot in the left leg and the scar is too deep, too big for a young girl that she is. Haleda had been raped by the militia. She can never walk again. -
Ljubica Radusinovic, 72, in IDP camp on the outskirts of Gracanica, Kosovo i Metohija, Serbia
May 25, 2018Ljubica is a refugee from the Bosnian war. She came with her husband to Serbia, but they were transferred to Kosovo.He was murdered on Kosovo Polje in 1999, and she was beaten by UCK. Alone and forgotten from everyone and the state, she was a refugee again. Ljubica found a shelter to Gracanica, where she still lives in a container in an IDP camp. ''I'll just wait for my death here, what else can I do?", she says. -
A newborn baby in hospital in Bukavu, DRC
October 25, 2017 -
"We are ordinary women who walked through hell, and now we are helping by giving love and hope. We are the heroines of love," said Marta Marcias with a smile, gently brushing her black hair from her face. A very beautiful woman, with restless dark eyes, Marta met the world of violence and death when she was only 13 years old. She spent her youth in one of the many gangs that fought battles for territories where they would sell drugs, women and weapons. "It simply came to our notice then. I was my only enemy. It took me a long time to win and find my way. " She was born and lives in Colombia, in Medellin, a city that was the scene of serious conflicts in the 1980s and 1990s, a real urban war zone. At that time, Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world.
