Bosnia:Nationalists triumph as Father Christmas banned in Sarajevo infant schools
Guardian
To Bosnia's Catholic Croats, he is known as Djed Boinjak (Father Christmas) and to Bosnian Serbs as Boic Bata, the Christmas Friend. To the Muslim Bosniak population, he is known as Deda Mraz, Grandfather Frost, the figure that for the past 50 years has been welcomed into infants' schools to distribute gifts at Christmas and new year.
But Deda Mraz will not be appearing in the largely Muslim state-run kindergartens of Sarajevo after being banned by the director of pre-school education on the grounds that he plays no part in Bosniak tradition.
The controversial attack on the close Bosnian equivalent of Santa Claus - a figure much in evidence in Sarajevo's shop windows and at private schools last week - is the culmination of a long history of unsuccessful efforts by nationalists with Islamist leanings to write him out of the country's history. The struggle first emerged in the aftermath of the Bosnian war when the wartime president, Alija Izetbegovic, attempted to declare Grandfather Frost a communist-era 'fabrication'.
While Izetbegovic's efforts were blocked after a public outcry, the moves this time by Arzija Mahmutovic, director of the Children of Sarajevo group of public nurseries, appear to have been successful as increasing ethnic and religious polarisation in schools reflects rhetoric in the country at large.
"A visit from Grandfather Frost was a tradition in my time," said Srecko Latal, who works with the NGO Balkan Insight. He believes the latest decree from the city's education department illustrates the way education - even for the very young - has become increasingly politicised and sectarian in Sarajevo. "The first row was over the decision to make infants study religion. Now she has caused uproar again by saying the children won't be having Grandfather Frost. Usually it is a play organised by the kids, or a company brought in with presents and singers and dancers. Originally it was Roman Catholic but it became part of the history of Sarajevo especially, and Bosnia more widely."
"I think ordinary people need to be asked what they want out of their public schools," says Valery Perry, deputy director for education with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which still has a role in monitoring the education system and has been concerned over a lack of transparency in how religious education has been introduced for infants.
Like Latal, Perry believes the battle over schools has come to reflect the deeper divisions and struggles within Bosnia's society: "There are increasingly tight links between the Bosniak nationalists and the Islamic community. The political atmosphere is divisive."
Although there has been no study of the impact of recent policies, officials and observers conceded last week that there was anecdotal evidence to suggest that separating children into different religious classes was reinforcing divisions that have barely been eroded since the war ended in 1995.
Anes Alic, a consultant with a think-tank in Sarajevo, who has been a vocal critic of Mahmutovic - and mocked the ban on Santa Claus - will not allow his own child to attend the religious education classes. "Santa has always visited schools and companies," he wrote recently. "Most private kindergartens and schools organise a visit by Santa and a New Year's Eve celebration, while state-run schools play along depending on the leanings of those on their boards of directors." Last week Alic said: "There was no proper debate at all when she [Mahmutovic] introduced religious lessons for infants and primary school children.'
It has been left to an anonymous parent writing on an internet forum, quoted by Alic, to sum up the mood of many: "Grandfather Frost is not a religious symbol. Unlike our politicians who are trying to separate us like sheep, Santa symbolises friendship, joy and contributes to the richness of our city."