Women on Women Award Winners in 2023:
Jasna Podreka
Sociologist, researcher and professor Dr Jasna Podreka receives this year’s Women on Women Award for her tireless work in preventing violence against women in Slovenia. Podreka is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, where she was awarded a PhD in 2014. Her doctoral dissertation, titled “Violence against women and intimate partner homicides of women in Slovenia” was followed by a 2017 publication of a scientific monograph “You were that silent thing: intimate partner homicides of women in Slovenia”. Her research and advocacy work is centred around the issues of domestic violence and intimate partner relations, in particular the femicide — a term describing the intimate partner homicides of women — which is the leading cause of violent death for women in Slovenia and globally.
Due to her research work on sexual violence and harassment in academic environment, Podreka has also become a trusted confidant for teaching staff and students at the Faculty of Arts on the subject of harassment, sexual harassment and mobbing. Inher educational and mentoring work at the faculty, Jasna Podreka encourages students to explore the topics of violence in their final theses.
Additionally, Podreka volunteers at the Association SOS Helpline for Women and Children Victims of Violence, performing the significant task of raising awareness of the issues about violence against women among the specialist and wider public, thus contributing to a better understanding of the topic as a societal issue, with its causes rooted in traditional patriarchal norms and beliefs.
Over the years, Jasna Podreka’s continuous efforts to prevent both discrimination and violence against women, as well as her proposals for improving the existing legislation and its practical implementation, have undoubtedly contributed to creating a better society for women in Slovenia.
Nada Žgank
Nada Žgank is an independent photographer based in Ljubljana. In 1995 she graduated from agronomy at the Biotechnical Faculty. During her studies, she volunteered as a photographer in various Roma settlements in Slovenia. As a documentary photographer she mainly covers art and culture, cultural identity practices, as well as social and political activism. She has been closely involved with the cultural scene for many years, both as a permanent collaborator and occasional co-creator of various festivals and the work of several art organisations: City of Women, Red Dawns, ŠKUC — Lesbian Quarter, ŠKUC Theatre, Emanat, Bunker, Mladinsko Theatre, Prešeren Theatre Kranj, Mladi Levi, Exodos, Ex Ponto, Gibanica, Jazz Cerkno, Jazz Festival Ljubljana. Her photographic work has been published in numerous Slovenian print media (Muska, Delo, Dnevnik, Mladina, Maska, Narobe). She regularly collaborates with the newspaper Kralji Ulice, and has shot several portraits of its members for the newspaper cover. Her work has been exhibited at several solo and group exhibitions.
Her work contributes significantly to the preservation of cultural memory and the historicization of numerous artistic projects, socio-activist initiatives, festivals, performances, concerts and exhibitions.
Nada Žgank is a photographer, she is “our very own” photographer who is unquestionably and convincingly dedicated to her work. Her approach to photography at various platforms of female (and other) creativity is invariably engaged and innovative.
Tita Mayer
Journalist and editor at the Radio Slovenia Tita Mayer receives the Women on Women Award for her consistent contribution to raising awareness of the situation of women in Slovenian society and abroad, as well as for her wider journalistic body of work focusing on women’s rights, LGBT+ communities and human rights in general.
The understanding of feminism and the awareness of feminist struggles remain inadequate in Slovenian media environment, where the topics concerning the situation of women and women’s rights are insufficiently covered. The radio podcast series On the right side by Tita Mayer is groundbreaking in this respect as it regularly covers feminist topics. Through her discussions with experts from various fields, Tita Mayer raises the pressing issues of gender equality and women’s rights in an accessible yet comprehensive way. She critically addresses current social issues such as violence against women, the right to abortion in Poland and the USA, under-representation of women in the media and politics, the women’s revolution in Iran, sexual harassment at Slovenian faculties and more. She received the Watchdog Award by the Slovene Association of Journalists in 2022 for her radio programme/podcast On the right side.
Tita Mayer also covers women’s rights and issues, as well as those of the LGBT+ community in her other journalistic work. The topics she investigates span from the accessibility of gynaecological care to family planning legislation and the situation of women in rural areas of Slovenia.
At a time when the Slovenian national radio and television broadcaster is subject to numerous political pressures and attempts at discredit, Tita Mayer’s journalistic work is all the more valuable.
Feminalz/Image Snatchers
Feminalz is a collective of transgender entities who use choreographic and performative practices as a means of expression performed in their feminist techno-burlesque show Image Snatchers. Since their first performance in 2013 they have been challenging social norms and political correctness with their originally created pieces, staging a sharp political satire by means of contemporary burlesque and cabaret. They use “a fun game of dressing-up” to expose, illuminate and parody those aspects of social madness that at once make the audiences laugh and fill them with horror. “The techno-burlesque is a silent comedy of the body that parodies the rigidity of social roles,” they say about the show. “It uncritically appropriates, copies and merges femininity, masculinity, family relationships, machismo and other corrupted social roles that are mistakenly considered normative.”
Image Snatchers question ideas of shame, taboos and censorship, placing them in the context of the emerging spaces of queer, the body and (its) representation. By exploring liminal identities and narratives, the Snatchers tenaciously give voice to and create a place for that sort of engaged obscenity which can uncover the perversity of the social norms, to decipher the constructed entrapment, and to liberate by means of embodiment. Their underground performance, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in April this year, is in constant flux and development, each reprise deviating from the previous one. The Image Snatchers — as is the intrinsic nature of all images — are always in the making. They are resident artists at Club Gromka at the Autonomous Cultural Centre Metelkova Mesto.
ŠKUC – Lesbian Quarter
The Lesbian Quarter Festival of art and activism, organised by the ŠKUC Association, is a yearly event running continuously since 2014. The Lesbian Quarter is a festival that persists, despite very limited funds, and continues to represent, reflect upon, and co-create local lesbian art, movement, community and creativity.
In its unique way, it creates public spaces for lesbian creativity, places for connection for lesbian individuals, artists and the wider LGBT+ community; both amongst each other and within the wider cultural and artistic scene. Rather than seeking the right place or time for its community, The Lesbian Quarter occupies spaces uncompromisingly, awakening historical lesbian spaces, and breathing into them the spirit of the present community. The Lesbian Quarter comprises exhibitions, performances, readings, film screenings, book presentations, lesbian tours, round tables, workshops, lectures, concerts, DJ sets, parties, gatherings, and, importantly, a platform for the local artists and diverse lesbian voices.
Whether we identify as lesbian or not, we can be rightly proud of the fact that The Lesbian Quarter emerged from our local environment, where it continues to create, subvert, document, question, and contextualise lesbian realities; and to provide a place for lesbian utopias. The Lesbian Quarter represents the continuity of the long-standing lesbian movement, of the art and the community of our sisters, affirming that the time of lesbianism is always a time of action, not a time of passive comfort or inaction.
This year's awards were the artworks from the following artists: Agata Lucić, Anastazija Pirnat, Nastja Mezek, Petra Korent in Sara Bezovšek.
The Commission were:
Evan Grm (The Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy) is a representative of the Legal Network, which has established the systematic cooperation between the human rights protection civil society, legal professionals and law firms.
Suzana Tratnik is a writer, translator, publicist and long-time lesbian activist. As a precarious worker in culture and activism for almost forty years, she has enriched the cultural and social environment for LGBT communities and society as a whole.
Neža Oder (Koroška Pride) is a representative of the Koroška Pride Institute, which focuses on the development and empowerment of LGBT+ communities in rural areas. Their contribution to the decentralisation of LGBT+ activism has given impetus to other self-organised activist initiatives as well.
Tamara Zablocki (Association SOS Helpline) is a representative of the Association SOS Helpline, which was the first non-governmental organisation in Slovenia working with violence against women and children.
Pia Skušek (FPZ Z‘borke) is a member of the renowned music collective FPZ Z’borke, which cultivates and spreads the tradition of rebellion through song, thus mobilising the masses in a unique way, and striving for a better world.
Women on Women Award Winners in 2022:
Women’s Choir Kombinat is a recognizable music collective harbouring and spreading the message of resistance through song and thus, in its own unique way, mobilizing the masses and striving for a better world. It was founded in 2008, when a group of women gathered at the founding assembly in The Autonomous Rog Factory squat in Ljubljana with a desire to revive resistance songs out of reverence for everyone who have raised their voices throughout history. As members themselves say, the choir is united in song and the belief that rebellion is one of the basic human rights.
In the last years, ŽPZ Kombinat has gained acclaim as one of the most visible women’s choirs, it collaborates with numerous acclaimed musicians and guest appears all over Slovenia, as well as abroad. Not only can one hear their singing songs of resistance in original languages at concerts, memorial ceremonies and celebrations on Women’s Day, Youth Day and Resistance Day, but it is perhaps even more meaningful when it supports masses of people, gathered in the city streets. In its fourteen years of activity, it has intervened in countless protests and actively took part in numerous social initiatives, always raising its head to support the underdog, thus letting us know that “critical thought is indeed only able to spring from a rebellious stance”.
For their continuous collective activities and a unique tireless engagement in the field of activism, we are respectfully bestowing the Women on Women Award on the former and current members of the Women’s Choir Kombinat.
“Društvo SOS telefon was founded in 1989 as an informal group within the framework of Sekcija Lilit, active in the formal scope of the ŠKUC-Forum organisation. It is essentially a feminist project. It has been formed out of a necessity identified and defined by a smaller group of women who wanted to help women experiencing violence. Društvo SOS telefon was the first non-governmental organisation in the field of work on violence against women and violence against children in Slovenia.”
This is how their web page describes the association’s establishment. In its over 30-year history, the association has transitioned from an informal into a more institutionalized or structured form, which nevertheless still relies on the engaged feminist work of its employees and numerous volunteers, who have been providing urgent help to women in distress throughout all those years.
For their uninterrupted and important activities, not only as the first non-governmental organization in the field of violence against women and children, but also as a fundamental feminist organization, we are respectfully bestowing the Women on Women Award on Društvo SOS telefon, an association for women and children – victims of violence.
Koroška Pride Institute is a non-governmental organization comprising nine Carinthian women1, which have decided to expose themselves in the fight for the rights of LGBT+ community. Their primary tenet is to strive for the benefits of the LGBT+ community where they have sensed the lack of such struggles. LGBT+ persons exist in rural areas, as well, and as the Koroška Pride members say, they also need a safe space there, where they live. The institute’s objectives are primarily to physically create a safe space for the LGBT+ community, which they deem an essential precondition to make the first steps. Their accessible and open manner of work tackles important issues and invites the wider community to take part. Their contribution to the decentralization of LGBT+ activism is immensurable and furthermore provides hope and momentum to other self-organized activist initiatives.
In July 2021, they organized the first Pride Parade in Carinthia: “Koroška Pride is but immense happiness in a safe, loving and fearlessly creative space. It is a celebration of all things beautiful within the chaos attempting to suppress beauty. It is a family outside a family home. It is an opportunity for each individual to stand up for him or herself and others, to find their voice (even though it can then go coarse from enthusiastic cries) and know, at least once a year, that they are entirely and unconditionally accepted.”2
For the acclaim of their important work in the field of filling geographical and content gaps in the fight for LGBT+ community rights, for the creation of safe spaces where they are most scarce, and as support for their future endeavours, we respectfully bestow the Women on Women award on Koroška Pride Institute.
Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy is an initiative which has currently been active for slightly over a year and was founded as a response to the gross and self-willed intervention of the government into the basic human rights and the rule of law. The Legal network has established systematic collaboration between the civil society in the field of human rights’ protection, legal experts and law firms, which has been an important contribution to diminishing the inevitable gap between the overpowering state and its repressive apparatus and the individual or society as a whole. Through their support in using legal means to challenge unlawful and unconstitutional procedures and practices, their victory at the Constitutional Court regarding the unconstitutional governmental ban on public gatherings, their observation of police behaviour on anti-government protests, as well as their legal opinions, stances and appeals, the Legan Network is fighting for a just, liberated and solidary society.
The organizations bearing the umbrella title Legal Network are: Legal Centre for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, Amnesty International Slovenija, Today Is a New Day Institute and Institute for Culture of Diversity Open. The motor forces behind the Legal Network are experienced women human rights fighters Katarina Bervar Sternad, Nataša Posel, Barbara Rajgelj, Jasna Zakonjšek, Maja Cimerman and Anuška Podvršič.
For their exceptional endeavours, networking, solidarity and tireless struggling, we respectfully bestow the Women on Women Award on the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy.
Suzana Tratnik is a writer, translator, columnist and longstanding lesbian activist, born in Murska Sobota. She obtained her BA in sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and her MA in gender anthropology at the Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis. She has published seven short story collections, six novels, a children’s picture book, a monodrama, a radio play and two monographs on the lesbian movement in Slovenia and on lesbian literature. Her works have been translated into over thirty languages.
As a lesbian activist, she was present at the historical pivotal points for the LGBT movement on Slovenian territory. She was a co-founder of the lesbian group LL in Ljubljana in 1987, the first and oldest lesbian group in Eastern Europe. As a selector and collaborator of the LGBT Film Festival, she contributed to this earliest LGBT film festival in Europe. Together with her co-workers and the Institute of Contemporary History, she achieved the digitalization of the LGBT archives – the ŠKUC Association contents from the period 1984-2021 – which has ensured the minority communities to preserve their historic memory.
As a precarious worker in the fields of culture and activism, sha has spent almost forty years enriching the cultural and societal space for the LGBT communities and the society at large. For her tireless persistence in lesbian activist work, we respectfully bestow the Women on Women Award on Suzana Tratnik.
1 Source: https://www.koroskenovice.si/novice/kdo-in-kaj-je-koroska-pride-za-nasmeh-vseh-lic-za-sobitje-src-za-eno-samo-ljubav-to-je-ponos/ (1 March 2022)
2 (Sara Nuša Golob Grabner for the web portal Stigma, https://www.stigma.space/post/impresija-koro%C5%A1ka-pride, 1 March 2022)
City of Women commission members for the Women on Women Award 2022:
Urška Sterle is a writer and translator, lesbian activist and editor of the radio show Lezbomanija at Radio Študent.
Eva Jus is a producer, pedagogue and performer, team member of the Red Dawns International Queer and Feminist Festival.
Gala Alica Ostan Ožbolt is studying visual arts in Vienna, her projects tackle the problematic of public space. She was more visibly active in the Youth for Climate Justice movement.
Maja Peharc is a member of the City of Women association, member of the Spol.si editorial board, she takes part in organising “the other” feminist award Bodeča neža and also volunteers at the SOS telefon. She has been a feminist since her early age.
Marina Uzelac is employed at the Slovenian Philanthropy association. As an advocate, she is active in the field of migrations and acts as a coordinator and programme director of the Migrant Film Festival.
2021
Zana Fabjan Blažič
Zana Fabjan Blažič has been active in the field of support and solidarity for refugees since
2015. Within the framework of the Ambasada Rog collective, she has been offering them the
legal, emotional, political, and other support necessary for survival in recent years. Together
with the mentioned collective, Zana has crucially contributed to making Ambasada Rog a safe
place, outside racism and market relations. It was a space of socialising, freedom, mutual care,
legal support, joint preparation of lunches, and common adventures, as well as a space for
planning strategies of freeing people from the claws of the centre for foreigners and deportation.
She was present at Ambasada Rog every day from its beginnings to the recent eviction. She
has collaborated with individuals in their preparation for interviews in the international protection
procedure, supported them in preparation for legal processes upon complaints about denied
international protection, cooked lunches, and organised numerous community events. Zana is a
tireless fighter for a world without borders, racism, and incarceration of people. Her experience
in avoiding state violence is too vast to record fully. Even though Rog was torn down, its
premises taken away and their hearts broken, they did not stop Zana’s anti-racist work. She
continues to establish relationships with people who are detained in the centre for foreigners
and seeks ways to expose this despicable, violent institution. This includes her constant readiness to search for ways along which people could be led to freedom. Zana fights against
racism and capitalism both on the structural level and in everyday interpersonal relations.
Rdeče Zore (Red Dawns)
Rdeče Zore is an international feminist and queer festival, which has been taking place for the
last 20 years in the days around March 8. It is marked by a wide selection of artistic and activist
events, including lectures, performances, exhibitions, musical performances, and other forms of
public expression.
The festival began in 2000, when the initiators decided to organise a festival on International
Women’s Day, 8 March, which would open the public space for gathering and expression of
women on the non-hierarchical, non-exploitational, and anti-capitalistic foundation. They derived
from the fact that at Metelkova women performed the larger part of the creative and
organisational yet invisible work which forms the basis for the operation of such a large
autonomous cultural centre. The festival continues to work non-hierarchically, mostly voluntarily
and with a DIY (do it yourself) approach, by which it gives the room to the most diverse feminist
artistic and activist practices.
The recurrent theme connecting the exchanging members of the Red Dawns programme
committee through the years is the examination of the position of women in the inseparable
network of art, culture, politics, activism, and everyday life. They do not burden themselves with
the search for women’s “essence” and the obscuring the view on current problems by
determining common biological or even character traits of women, but rather focus their
attention on everyday underestimation and exploitation of women and men in the neoliberal
patriarchal society.
Even though autonomous spaces where such festivals can be held gradually keep
disappearing, Red Dawns does not give in and is planning this year’s on-line edition of the
festival.
Aigul Hakimova
For the last 20 years, Aigul Hakimova has been recognising the potential of emancipatory
liberation movements and is simultaneously their driving force. She primarily participates in
those which unite people from the margins of the society: the erased, unemployed, migrant
workers, asylum seekers, and refugees. She is a tireless fighter against the closing of Trdnjava
Evropa, participates in numerous movements and initiatives, including in Dost Je!, Svet za
vsakogar, Nevidni delavci sveta, Protirasistična fronta brez meja, Socialni center ROG, Info
Kolpa, Second Home in Exile, and Gmajna. Without her engagement, the issue of exploitation
of migrant workers in Slovenia would never have attracted as many young generations of
activists and votes of support from the wider public. She has also brought attention to this issue
by participating in a documentary entitled V deželi medvedov (2012) about the unbearable
position of migrant workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, together with her fellow
activists, she also put together in the today unfortunately torn down Rog factory.
Recently, Aigul has been working on organising the migrant community, especially community
premises, which offer refugees the feeling of equality and inclusion. She collaborates with
incentives on the Balkan Route, reports on the events happening at borders, especially the
push-backs (another systematic violation of human rights), and informs the wider public about the meaning of migrations. At the same time, she constantly re-examines the established
patriarchal social patterns and norms and fights against capitalism.
Dr Gabrijela Simetinger
Dr Gabrijela Simetinger works at the Novo mesto General Hospital, where she is a
gynaecologist and obstetrician. For nine years now, she has also been working in the
sexological outpatient clinic, to which women with sexual intercourse-related issues turn for
advice and potential therapy. She is also the president of the Slovenian Sexological Association.
In her work, she often encounters different sexual stereotypes and expectations society has
towards women and their sexuality. The latter are frequently the reason for the problems due to
which women turn to her for help. Her approach is based on interdisciplinary collaboration
between medicine, sociology, and feminism. She teaches women how to get to know their body,
how to accept their own desires and needs, how to get rid of feelings of shame and guilt
connected to (physical) self-image and sexuality, and how to set boundaries in (sexual)
intercourse. Dr Simetinger is one of the few gynaecologists and healthcare workers in Slovenia
who raises the awareness of the public and educates on vaginism. Her active efforts to change
the deeply rooted beliefs and social dogmas about sex encompasses a different perspective on
both the female and male sexuality and acceptance of different sexual identities and sexuality.
At a time when an increasing number of stories about sexual harassment and abuse of women
are made public; at a time when the reproductive rights of women are being increasingly
scrutinised by neoconservative misogynists, it is all the more important to have doctors and
other healthcare workers of Gabrijela’s stature working in a public healthcare system accessible
to everyone.
Radio show Lezbomanija
Lezbomanija is a monthly radio show on Radio Študent. It has been aired continually since
1998; at first, it was edited by Nataša Sukič, and after 2015, by Urška Sterle. The show
discusses the lesbian, but also wider LGBT community, policy, and culture. Every edition brings
local and international news and a deep insight into a current topic accompanied by topical
music.
Due to the lack of financing, the LGBT media in Slovenia have a hard time maintaining a
continuous existence: for almost every year of Lezbomanija’s existence, we could enumerate
one LGBT publication that stopped being published. If we add to that the shrinkage of the media
space under the current government, pressures on journalists, the commercialisation of the
media, long-running attempts to shut down Radio Študent, and hate speech towards the LGBT
community, which in the mainstream media often finds its place under the pretext of balanced
reporting, more than two decades of uninterrupted broadcasting of the lesbian show prove to be
an exceptional achievement. Lezbomanija not only reports about lesbian and LGBT culture but
also co-creates it. It offers it a space where it can develop, write its own history and (self-
)criticism; it is a space for content from the community for the community, and is part of a radio
station listened to by the wider public. Thus, Radio Študent and Lezbomanija communicate that the lesbian community is an indispensable part of the wider cultural, progressive, and alternative
scene.
Women committee members for the WoW Awards 2021:
Katja Kovač is an economist and volunteer. She has participated in various workshops for
children in the asylum centre, humanitarian actions, and workshops in the field of gender-based
violence. Currently, she acts as a volunteer at VGC Morje Koper, where she works with children
and young people with special needs.
Urška Breznik is the director of the Pekarna Magdalenske mreže institute, in Maribor, where
she is in charge of the socially critical programme and encourages the self-organisation of
inhabitants within the Iniciativa mestni zbor initiative. She is also active in the ZaŽivali! and
Center za družbeno raziskovanje societies.
Ada Černoša is an LGBT activist and president of the Kvartir society, the feminist queer
collective that works in the fields of bisexuality, transgender, and LGBT culture, community, and
health.
Klara Otorepec is a journalist, radio technician, and publicist. Since 2014, she has been co-
editing the Sektor Ž show on Radio Študent. In recent years, she has been organising the
Feminist seminar together with Katja Čičigoj, the seminar devoted to reading classical feminist
works and discussing current feminist topics.
Jelka Zorn is an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Work in Ljubljana. She is a No
Border activist, who is also active in the movement of the erased. Her research and pedagogical
endeavours focus on the fields of social work and migrations.
2020
No-Border Craft is a self-organized initiative led by women who are activists, refuges and
asylum seekers in Slovenia. They are fighting against racism, sexism, and for open borders in
organizing direct actions and offering each other mutual support. No-Border Craft succeed
to build a firm social network between migrant women and local residents in Slovenia. This
is by creating an environment for active participation in the local cultural and social events,
and through looking for opportunities for alternative economy by offering their handcraft
products. The activism of this group is intersectional and it is a safe place for all who want to
challenge and change the existing sexist, white supremacist and patriarchal system.
No-Border Craft is led and organized by inspirational women without borders like Tanja
Završki, Jelka Zorn, Ameenah Qawas, Martina and Darja Kališek, Endila, Gulbene, Rashede,
Popet, Asja Hrvatin, Rumat, Sara Fabjan, Somayeh Asadpour, Somayeh, Masume and
Zeinab Manafi, Helena Krapež Škoberne, Sarah Lunaček, Suzana Koncut, Tamara Raftović
Loštrek , Fatima, Zahra, Zahra, Samira, Hamide, Atefeh, Behnaz, Heba, and many more.
Sabina Zorec is a pioneer in working with female prisoners and active drug users. Years ago,
when she was still a student and a volunteer at the Stigma Association, she was working
with the female prisoners at the Ig jail and began to realise that after their sentence is over,
women have nowhere to turn, so they mostly end up on the streets or in abusive
relationships. Homelessness, prostitution, risky drug abuse, violent relationships and
delinquency form a world in which these “marginal women” usually quickly return after
their sentence has expired, thereby repeating the vicious circle. Sabina Zorec began to
address this vicious circle of violence and precarity by founding the first safe house for
women, one with a low threshold programme – where drug abstinence is not a condition to
enter the safe house. This is the first social welfare programme of the kind not only nation-
wide, but also on a wider scale in Europe. In January 2010, the Stigma Safe House was
founded, targeting active female drug users who are victims of violence, and this year, the
safe house has marked a decade of its operation. It has strongly contributed to the decrease
of risky drug use, prostitution, delinquency, homelessness and the possibility of returning to
violent relationships in which the women are most often born in, only to repeat them later
in life.
Urška Breznik is the director of the institute Pekarna Magdalenske mreže, which has been
introducing a fresh, socially critical programme to Maribor under her leadership, promoting
the strengthening of local initiative and solidarity among different social minorities. Urška
Breznik is not only active within the institute but is also a member and president of the
vegan association Za živali. She says veganism for her is not a choice, but a moral
imperative. Furthermore, she dedicates her energy to the strengthening of local self-
government and city quarters, to the school of political literacy and similar topics. She is
active in numerous fields lacking habilitated human resources, and she is one of the reasons
that Maribor is finally able to successfully get rid of its stuffiness.
ČIPke Initiative for Women with a Sense for Technology, Science and Art was founded in
2013 due to the need for safe, inclusive spaces for female programmers, electronic
engineers, mechanic engineers, hackers and geeks. Since then, the ČIPke initiative has been based in the Rampa Laboratory on Kersnikova 4 (within the framework of the Kersnikova
Institute) to research and promote the co-operation of women in scientific and technical
context and intermedia art. Their programme of practical education includes open-code
programme workshops, programming, graphic design, video editing, electronics and
robotics. Already in the first two years of their activities, ČIPke have managed to form a
group of twenty regular attendants, which has only been growing ever since, given that the
regular “web-weaving” sessions at the ČIPke open laboratory welcome all women,
regardless of their previous knowledge, age or other circumstance. As they say themselves:
“The only conditions for attending (…) are a curious eye, ear and hands.”
The ČIPke community is now tended to by Ana Smerdu and Sanja Hrvaćanin, before them it
was by Staša Guček (2017-19), and before her, the initiative founders Saša Spačal and Ida
Hiršenfelder (2013-16). They and the entire community bear strong connections to the
documentary Flow / Tok (2016), showcasing eight women in Slovenia who successfully
operate in technical professions, as well as the experimental sound ensemble Kikimore.
The ČIPke Initiative receives the WoW Award as a merit for their perseverance in feminist
policies of creating safer spaces for women and especially girls who would have a much
harder time getting attention, knowledge and merits in mixed gender groups in the field of
contemporary technologies and arts. To many years ahead!
Sektor Ž Radio Show has monthly been aired on the Radio Študent radio channel for two
decades now. After all this time, it remains the only show in Slovenian media space to use
the feminist aspect in addressing political initiatives from the bottom up, but also tackles
official policies, social trends, theory, pedagogics and art bearing the feminist mark. As its
authors say, the show uses knowledge to fight “against prejudice that equals feminism to
separatism or man-hating ideology. Instead, it brings activism, education, research, art and
other forms of (in)visible work of women, trans persons and men who support and live
feminist policies to the forefront”.
The Sektor Ž radio show has been founded in 2000 by Katja Grabnar and Eva Horvat. They
led it until 2005, when Jasmina Jerant took over as editor, working with Ana Podvršič and
Julija Sardelić. Between 2008 and 2014, the show was edited by Ida Hiršenfelder and co-
created by Tea Hvala, Ana Reberc, Mirna Berberović and Zala Turšič. Today, Teja Oblak,
Klara Otorepec, Anamarija Šiša and Antonija Todić are entrusted with this task.
We are bestowing the WoW Award to the former and current creators of the Sektor Ž radio
show for years of quality and socially critical journalism. They are an example for continuous
collective co-operation in precarious conditions, which would not have been possible
without the dedication and enthusiasm of all co-authors, as well as without their successful
transfer of knowledge from generation to generation. Congratulations to all the co-creators
of the Sektor Ž show!
Members of the City of Women jury for the WoW Awards:
Tea Hvala is a sociologist, critic and translator. At the City of Women, she is in charge of
cultural and artistic education.
Linn Julian Koletnik has an MA in gender studies, is an LGBTQ+ activist and the director of
the only trans-specific NGO in Slovenia, the TransAkcija Institute.
Tjaša Pureber is a cultural producer, activist and social movements researcher.
Tanja Rener is a sociologist, professor emeritus at the University of Ljubljana.
Samar Zughool is an intercultural trainer, theater actress and non-formal educator.