The Women's Antifascist Front of Macedonia (; abbreviated АФЖ, AFŽ) was a post-World War II feminist movement in Yugoslav Macedonia and the predecessor to several present-day feminist organisations in North Macedonia.
History
It was formed by volunteers along with other Women's Antifascist Fronts in Yugoslavia and was one of only four to also become an organised Communist resistance.P. Ramet, Sabrina. (1999). Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women, Society and Politics in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States. Penn State University Press. pp. 75-76. . Google Book Search. Retrieved on July 14, 2009. The predecessors of the organization were the commissions for work with women of the Macedonian Communist Party established in March 1943. They illegally formed the first committees in Kavadarci and Negotino in the Bulgarian occupation zone of Yugoslavia.
The organization was officially founded on December 14, 1944, in Skopje, a month after the capture of the city. They published the magazine Makedonka (Macedonian woman), which was the first women's magazine in the newly codified Macedonian language.de Haan, F. Daskalova, K. Loutfi, A. (2006). A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries. Central European University Press. pp. 296-300. . Google Book Search. Retrieved on July 8, 2008.
The most prominent figure in the movement was Veselinka Malinska, a decorated World War II veteran and ASNOM participant. The AFŽ's main goal was to improve schooling for females and increase their literacy rate, as a majority of illiterates at the time were women.Trouton, R. (1952). Peasant Renaissance in Yugoslavia, 1900-1950: A Study of the Development of Yugoslav Peasant Society as Affected by Education. Routledge. p. 283. . Google Book Search. Retrieved on July 8, 2008.
During the Greek Civil War, the organisation's allies as the National Liberation Front and the National Liberation Youth Association, which had a substantial number of female partisans, were active in Greek Macedonia."The Aegean part of Macedonia after the Balkan Wars". Council for Research into South-Eastern Europe of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 1996.
The organisation was transformed into the Union of Women's Societies of Macedonia in 1953.Македонски историски речник. Скопје: ИНИ, 2000, стр. 35–36. . In 1961, the organisation became Conference for Women's Social Activity. In 1991, the organisation ceased to exist and the Organization of Women of Macedonia declared itself as its successor.
See also Women's Antifascist Front of Bosnia and Herzegovina Women's Antifascist Front of Croatia
References
External links President Branko Crvenkovski is patron of the manifestation marking the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Antifascist Front of Macedonia