Fata Orlović

Pre-war life

Fata was born to Muslim Bosniak parents Šaban and Zlatka Husejnović in the eastern Bosnian hamlet Hrnčići on the outskirts of Bratunac. Sources vary as to her year of birth, between 1940 and 1943, although in a 2013 interview she said she was 71 years old. She married Šaćir Orlović, with whom she had seven children including daughters Fatima, Zlatka and Senija and a son named Šaban.

Before the war, Fata had four houses and four stables. Along with many Bosniaks living in the hill villages of the Drina Valley, she was ethnically/religiously cleansed from the village by the ethnic Serb military aggression during the war. Her husband Šaćir and between 22–28 other family members were killed and she and her seven children made refugees.

Return to Konjević Polje and legal battle

When she returned to Konjević Polje in 2000 she found that her home had been completely demolished by the Serbs and a Serbian Orthodox church built on her land. The church was built in the summer of 1996, upon the end of the war.

The destruction of places of worship and other religious symbols of the communities forced from their homes was an important feature of the ethnic cleansing. New buildings like the church in Konjevic Polje were erected to emphasize that a new ethnic/religious group now owned the land.

Fata Orlović has fought tenaciously to have the church removed from her garden, in the face of bureaucratic resistance and physical intimidation. She was beaten. When she complained to the authorities the priest Vasilije Kačavenda accused her of being a disseminator of national hate.

She pursued a legal action through the courts which found in her favour and against the priest, ordering the church to be demolished. Although her lawyer advised her to file charges for the mistreatment, injuries and death threats she received, Fata preferred to set an example to her opponents, maintaining that "We should let things go now, it is the smartest thing to do. I am hurt, but I can not hurt anymore." She insisted that she was proud of herself and her (seven) children, and of her "smart but agonized people." She said that she wanted to say to Serbs "If you are not a good person, become one. We will die eventually, so it is better to die as a good person than as a bad one."

Her efforts were supported by journalists who wholeheartedly supported Fata and helped spread the news of her struggle.

In 2007 the Government of Republika Srpska agreed to fund the relocation of the church. The Office of the High Representative welcomed the agreement as a sign that Fata Orlović’s right to private property would be respected. The church is empty, awaiting relocation. Dismantling it and moving it elsewhere will cost thousands of dollars.

Fata Orlović's fight against the church is regarded as a test of the potential for restoration of the rule of law in a divided Bosnia. According to James Rodehaver, human rights director for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe(OSCE) in Sarajevo, the relocation of the church will be an important indicator of a return to the rule of law and the possibility of resolving the legacy of the war.

Fata Orlović is not bothered by the fact that the building on her land is a church and that Orthodox Serbs worship there. She respects churches as much as mosques but insists that if the congregation want a church they should put it on their own land. While respecting all nations and religions, she observes that she can't respect people building on her land.

She has had to build her own home on the charred remains of the old one, with her own funds with assistance some assistance from Sulejman Tihić, former member of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who provided roofing tiles, windows, and doors. For a long time she had to get by without electricity or a water supply. Security is poor. Bosniak homes are broken into and robbed, and livestock stolen. It was alleged that Serb police watch over the church while other Serbs, opposed to Bosniaks returning to their homes, go stealing.

The bitter experience of expulsion has damaged Fata's ability to trust. When asked for forgiveness by those who accused her of spreading national hatred in the past she refuses to forgive, though she insists she will not hurt anyone either. "They massacred to the last, killed everyone, burned all of it, and now they ask me to forgive them. I shall not!"

Awards

The US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina nominated Fata Orlović for the international "The Woman of Courage" award, given to brave women who fight for their rights in a nonviolent way. Orlović was chosen as the 2007 Person of the Year by the Bosnian newspapers "Dnevni avaz" and "Preporod".

Documentary

Orlović was the subject of an Al Jazeera Balkans documentary in November 2012 called The House That Fata Didn't Build.