Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić

Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić (born 11 November 1960) is a Bosnian Gurbeti Romani journalist, broadcaster, writer, translator, linguistic researcher and teacher, currently residing in Canada. She was a popular television and radio broadcaster in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later went on to become a writer, publishing children's books, poetry, and memoirs. She is a scholar of the Gurbeti dialect of the Romani language and has published several dictionaries and archives of folk tales, and is active in efforts to preserve Romani culture. Her writing has won several awards in Poland, Croatia, and Sarajevo.

Early life and education Tahirović-Sijerčić was born in Sarajevo on 11 November 1960 and belongs to the Gurbeti Romani people. She studied journalism at the University of Sarajevo, graduating in 1985, and earned a further degree in teaching from the University of Tuzla. She also earned a Magister Diploma from Center for Interdisciplinary Postdiploma Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Sarajevo. Following her emigration to Canada, she obtained an additional teaching qualification from the Ontario College of Teachers. Her Doctoral diploma she earned from University of Belgrade.

Career In the 1980s, Tahirović-Sijerčić became a notable radio and television in the Bosnia-Herzegovina. From 1986 to 1992, she was the chief editor of a popular radio program, Lačho džive, Romaleni, (tr: Have a good day, Roma people) and between 1991 and 1992, she hosted Malavipe (tr: Meetings), a TV Sarajevo program. She worked towards establishing the rights of the Romani people, with the International Romani Union.

Tahirović-Sijerčić also writes non-fiction, and has focused particularly on documenting Romani culture and researching the Gurbeti dialect. She has published three collections of Romani folktales and folklore, several dictionaries of the Gurbeti dialect, a biography of her father, and an autobiography. In 2009, she was the subject of a documentary film, Hedina, about her life, which was directed by Zoran Kubura.