Mitra Mitrović

Mitra Mitrović ({{langx|sr|Митра Митровић}}; 6 September 1912 – 4 April 2001) was a Serbian politician, feminist and writer.

File:Pop Vlada Zečević i Mitra Mitrović.jpg

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{{cite web |url=http://www.yurope.com/zines/republika/arhiva/2001/259/259_26.html |title=Mitru Mitrovic: 1912–2001 |work=Republika |year=2001 |language=Bosnian}} and, as an anti-fascist, was imprisoned following the German occupation of Serbia but managed to escape.{{cite news |url=https://www.danas.rs/drustvo/rodna-ravnopravnost/mitra-mitrovic-prva-ministarka-u-istoriji-srbije/ |title=Mitra Mitrović: Prva ministarka u istoriji Srbije |work=Danas |date=November 23, 2017}}

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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBdnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |title=Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies |page=57 |first=Ivan |last=Simic |year=2018 |isbn=978-3319943824}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2joCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173 |title=War Stories: The War Memoir in History and Literature |page=173 |first=Philip |last=Dwyer |year=2016 |isbn=978-1785333088}} She helped found the feminist newspaper Žena danas ("Woman today").

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

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

She married Milovan Đilas in 1936; the couple divorced in 1952.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWtpAAAAMAAJ&q=Mitra+Mitrović+2001 |title=The South Slav Journal |page=92 |volume=25 |year=2004}}

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.

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.

Mitrović died in Belgrade at the age of 88.

References