Skopje, 6 December 2024 (MIA) — To mark the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Women's Antifascist Front of Macedonia – which published Makedonka [Macedonian Woman], the first women's periodical published in Macedonian in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia – a series of events will be held from Dec. 12-24 in memory of the greatest women's movement in former Yugoslavia.

"Founded during World War II, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, with the goal of including women en masse and systematically in the fight against fascist forces, the Women's Antifascist Front of Macedonia not only fulfilled its goal through its wide and complex network on the ground but also succeeded in implementing mass literacy campaigns as well as campaigns to promote women's participation in politics and in the workforce," organizers said in a press release.

The Women's Antifascist Front of Macedonia was founded on Dec. 15, 1944, in Skopje, thanks to the initiative and leading role of the partisans and communist politicians Veselinka Malinska, Mara Naceva, Vera Ciriviri Trena and Lefta Josifovska.

The events begin at the Cinematheque on Dec. 12, when the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Feminist Anti-Fascist Network will host a panel discussion featuring regional activists, followed by a reading of Iskra Geshoska's "She" by Nikola Ristanovski and a performance of "The Spirit of Liberty" by Nikola Karev High School students.

Other events will include discussions, an exhibition, laying flowers at the Monument to the Woman Warrior, and a book launch for a collection of research papers on the Women's Antifascist Front of Macedonia's Macedonian Woman periodical. mr/