Mitra Mitrović

Mitra Mitrović (Serbian: Митра Митровић; 6 September 1912 – 4 April 2001) was a Serbian politician, feminist and writer.

Mitra Mitrović on the far right of the image

Biography

The daughter of a railway official, she was born in Požega. Her father died of typhus during World War I and her mother was left to raise the five children. With the help of a scholarship, Mitrović was able to study at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, earning a degree in Serbo-Croatian language and literature in 1934. In 1933, she joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. She was arrested several times^[1] and, as an anti-fascist, was imprisoned following the German occupation of Serbia but managed to escape.^[2]

She was a delegate to the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ). She was an editor of Borba, the Communist Party newspaper. She was a founding member of the Antifascist front of women (AFŽ) and served on its central committee.^[3][4] She helped found the feminist newspaper Žena danas ("Woman today").^[2]

She served as a member of the Serbian National Assembly and of the federal assembly for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.^[2]

Mitrović was Minister of Education in the government of the People's Republic of Serbia.^[5] Later, she served as president of the Council for Education and Culture.^[2]

She married Milovan Đilas in 1936; the couple divorced in 1952.^[5]

Even though she was no longer married to Đilas, when he fell out of favor, she was removed from all her political posts in January 1954.^[3]

She published a memoir Ratno putovanje as well as books in support of women's rights: Pravo glasa žena dokaz i oruđe demokratije and Položaj žene u savremenom svetu.^[2]

Mitrović died in Belgrade at the age of 88.^[2]

References

1. "Mitru Mitrovic: 1912–2001". Republika (in Bosnian). 2001.
2. "Mitra Mitrović: Prva ministarka u istoriji Srbije". Danas. November 23, 2017.
3. Simic, Ivan (2018). Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies. p. 57. ISBN 978-3319943824.
4. Dwyer, Philip (2016). War Stories: The War Memoir in History and Literature. p. 173. ISBN 978-1785333088.
5. The South Slav Journal. Vol. 25. 2004. p. 92.