"This Was Not Our War shares first-person accounts of twenty-six Bosnian women who are reconstructing their society following years of devastating warfare. A university student working to resettle refugees, a paramedic who founded a veterans' aid group, a fashion designer running two nonprofit organizations, a government minister and professor who survived Auschwitz - these women are advocates, politicians, farmers, journalists, students, doctors, businesswomen, engineers, wives, and mothers. They are from all parts of Bosnia and represent its full range of ethnic traditions and mixed heritages. Their ages spread across sixty years, and their wealth ranges from expensive jewels to a few chickens. For all their differences, they have this much in common: all survived the war with enough emotional strength to work toward rebuilding their country."--Jacket.

Introduction -- pt. 1. Madness -- Hell breaks loose -- Love in the crucible -- Reasons for the war -- The lie of intractable hatreds -- pt. 2. To heal history -- Challenges -- Women transforming -- The road to reconciliation -- Epilogue: The courage to hope -- Profiles -- Closing thoughts.