Music that Lifts the Spirit
When you think of courageous living, playing music is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But Dijana Ihas, a professional musician and refugee
Category: Bosnia
Coffee Pot & Grinder, Sarajevo, Bosnia
Imam Abdulah Polovina: In this photo you can see an old traditional handmade coffee bean grinder and the traditional coffee called “dzezva” for making Bosnian
Qur’an, Sarajevo, Bosnia
Imam Abdulah Polovina: This is the opening part of the holy Qur’an that I brought with me from Bosnia and Herzegovina where it shows my birth
Books, Sarajevo, Bosnia
Imam Abdulah Polovina: This is the photo of an old collection of Mawlid poems and recitations. The term Mawlid is part of the daily vocabulary of the Muslim population
Viola, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
Dijana Ihas: This is the photo of my viola that my parents bought for me when I was 14 years young. I carried this instrument first, for 7 hours
So Many People, So Many Miracles
Twenty-one-year-old Samir Mustafic was in the small orchard behind his home in Bosnia when Serbian bombs rained down upon his family’s property.
It’s All a Matter of Perspective
His left arm lay dangling from his body. The angle was alarming–entirely unnatural. His midsection was in shreds, ripped apart by Serbian shrapnel that had punctured
Nothing Else But Miracles
Samir was a teenager in love, his days full of farm chores, school and walking his girlfriend home. When war came to his corner of northeastern Bosnia,
To Bear Witness: Even in Chaos
Teenagers when they met and fell in love, Abdullah and Hatidza did not let war stop them. After Abdullah joined the Bosnian army to fight for his country,
The Elusive Feeling of Safety
It was dark when they left. They walked and walked, women, children, parents, elders, through the woods, up hills, until his feet hurt and his grandfather had to scoop
And The Quartet Played On
“Outside the monster raged with flaming nostrils. But inside there was tranquility. The melancholy notes of Albinoni’s adagio drifted into every corner of the room,
Love in the Midst of Mayhem
It was a simple wedding and, but for the bombs exploding outside, a quiet one. She wore a plain gray skirt, a white blouse and a white hijab befitting a […]
Rebuilding Her Life to Reconcile
One of Dijana’s earliest memories is of sleeping in the woods with her family. They weren’t camping for fun though — they were hiding. “We were attacked in Bosnia