ŠEVALA ZILDŽIĆ-IBLIZOVIĆ, PhD

Ševala Zildžić was born in 1903, to the well-known Sarajevo craftsmen family of Zildžić, which was traditionally involved in making bells, and it was also the root of their family name (Tur. zil – bell). Upon completing the primary school for girls, she wanted to continue her education, become a doctor of medicine and be available to the female population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her role models were the few female doctors such as Czech-born Anna Bayer, who treated and served women of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Austro-Hungarian period. The only possibility to obtain the graduation certificate, which would allow her to study at a faculty of medicine was to enroll in the High School in Sarajevo. The fact that the school had begun to admit female students and was no longer exclusively all boys’ school was to Ševala's advantage. Although there were no legal obstacles to enroll in and attend the high school, patriarchal codes and the adopted practice according to which girls' place was at home and not at school, as well as harassment and marginalization of the Zildžić family were a real danger which could leave Ševala at home. Fortunately, however, it did not happen. Her parents managed to overcome all the difficulties which stood in the way of their daughter's education, and Ševala started high school. According to some writers of the time, her family and her were harassed by some people from the neighborhood, who did not want to sell them goods from their stores, or by local urchins who would throw stones at Ševala when she was going to school, so that her father regularly had to take her to and from school in the hackney cab.

Despite everything, Ševala Zildžić graduated from high school in 1925 and out of 358 students who completed the school between 1919 and 1929 she was one of two Muslim female graduates. According to data from the school yearbook, the name of Razija Biserović is mentioned besides Ševala's name. Upon completing the high school, she married her fellow student Muhamed Iblizović, and the two of them went to study medicine in Zagreb. Out of great love and admiration, her husband decided to study medicine with her although he had favored another field.

Ševala Zildžić-Iblizović was a brilliant student and during her studies she held tutorials. She resolutely declined the attractive position of a teaching assistant and returned to her home city with the degree in medicine in 1931 to be at service of and treat her fellow female citizens and children.

A woman who broke established stereotypes

With such an attitude and results on the road of acquiring knowledge she broke stereotypes rooted in these regions for centuries, that the woman should not and cannot be highly educated and that she cannot hold public and responsible positions. She and her parents were a great encouragement and support for all the others who wanted but did not dare properly educate their daughters. Indeed, we must by no means forget the disastrous and shameful statistics of BiH population from 1910, which at the same time illustrates that women in general were the category of population with the highest percentage of illiteracy. Having in mind such a context, the act of the Zildžić family to send their daughter to school was a truly revolutionary and important moment on the road to the exercise of basic human and religious rights, which were quite unnaturally denied to women in these regions over a long period.

Permission for schooling was granted by raisu-l-ulama Džemaludin Čaušević

On the road of achieving her sublime goal of acquiring knowledge, and the desire to stay true to her religious heritage, Ševala Zildžić tried to use all the means available and acceptable at the time. Probably hoping that she would annul the backward law of the neighborhood in this way, Ševala Zildžić personally went to see the supreme head of the Islamic Community aiming to obtain his written permission for her, as a girl, to enroll in the former all boys’ high school.

Having completed high school and faculty of medicine in Zagreb and having then returned to Bosnia, Ševala was the encouragement to many Sarajevo families who began to send their daughters to primary and secondary schools with less fear and concern.

History remembers courageous and proactive individuals, men and women, whose foresight paved the way for later generations. Ševala Zildžić and her family are part of the history. And as it often happens, particularly in the context of the issue of positioning the place and role of the woman, almost no relevant data on personalities that we should be proud of can be found on the pages of important historical readers or encyclopedias. To have a woman as a doctor of medicine in the first half of the 20th century was a true jewel.

In Sarajevo, one street was named after her after the aggression. She was a woman  - “institution”. Some recent studies and activities of non-governmental sector slowly but surely remove the dust of oblivion from personalities such as dr. Ševala Zildžić-Iblizović, the first female doctor of medicine, a Muslim, in BiH, a great humanist, builder of peace and coexistence. Besides care for the health of her students and fellow citizens, she was actively involved in raising awareness of healthcare.

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of her birth, BH Pošte designed a stamp with her picture. Doctor Ševala, as Sarajevo women called her, spent her whole life in Sarajevo and finished her career as a specialist in gynecology and pediatrics at the school clinic in Sarajevo in 1962. She died in Sarajevo in 1978. Her janazah (funeral prayer) was prayed at Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque and she was buried at the Bare cemetery. It was one of janazahs that Sarajevo still remembers. And janazahs themselves speak of the deceased.