Lepa Mlađenović

Lepa Mlađenović (; born November 9, 1954) is a Serbian feminist, lesbian, anti-war activist who is a pioneer of second-wave feminism in Yugoslavia. She is a feminist counselor for women survivors of male violence or lesbophobia, a workshop facilitator, a writer and lecturer and a member of several international boards and networks which are concerned about lesbian rights and violence against women. Mlađenović is considered a symbol of women's activism in the former Yugoslavia. Born in Belgrade, she spent her childhood summer holidays in Sarajevo and at the Adriatic Sea. As of 2017, Mlađenović lives in Belgrade.

Human-rights work

Alternatives to Psychiatry Mlađenović graduated from the Department of Psychology Studies at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy in 1980. As a student, she opposed the rigid educational system by writing protest letters to professors criticizing conservative rules which do not empower students. Mlađenović initiated and co-organised "Psychiatry and Society", a three-day 1983 international conference at the student cultural center in Belgrade.

Feminist and anti-war activism Mlađenović's feminist activism began in 1978 when she participated in DRUG-ca Žena (Comrade Women), In 1982, Mlađenović co-organized the feminist group Women and Society in Belgrade. Four years later, she organized an all-women feminist group as part of Women and Society which was based on a self-awareness model. The meeting encouraged sisterhood, exchanges, support for women's activism, discussions of violence against women, women's reproductive health, women's art and culture, and the first initiatives for lesbian organizing. With other Women and Society activists, Mlađenović co-founded the SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence in Belgrade in 1990 and was a coordinator and counselor for women survivors of male violence. She later worked with women victims of war.

In 1991, Mlađenović joined Stanislava Staša Zajović and several other feminist anti-war activists to found Women in Black.

Mlađenović was an educator and counselor from 1992 to 2012, working with women victims of male violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Hungary. In 1993, Mlađenović and other feminist SOS Hotline volunteers founded Autonomni Ženski Centar AŽC (the Autonomous Women's Center); she was a psychological counselor and coordinator of the center's counseling team until 2011. Mlađenović has participated in (and facilitated) many workshops for women and support groups for women victims of male violence from 2000 to the present, and facilitates emotional-literacy workshops for activists (particularly lesbians) in the Balkans. She works in Italy with the Donne in Rete contro la violenza NGO, and published a paper about feminist counseling for sexual violence.

Lesbian activism Mlađenović and Suzana Tratnik were participants from Yugoslavia at the 1986 International Lesbian Information Service conference in Geneva. She, Dejan Nebrigić and several other activists founded Arkadija, Belgrade's first gay and lesbian organization, in 1990; the group operated until 1997. Mlađenović was the first lesbian in Serbia to come out during a public television broadcast (in 1994); she discussed gay and lesbian issues and represented the Arkadija group. She and several other activists from Arkadija formed Labris, the first lesbian organization, the following year.

As part of Labris, Mlađenović was an organizer of and participant in the first Lesbian Week in Slovenia in 1997 (organized by the Slovenian feminist lesbian group Kasandra). Forty-five people participated from Novi Sad, Maribor, Skopje, Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina, Split and Ljubljana, and the event introduced regional feminist cooperation. The second Lesbian Week was held in Sombor in 2000, and the third (both organized by Labris) took place in Novi Sad in 2004. and the fourth Lesbian Week was organised in 2011.

Mlađenović was a co-organizer of the 2001 Belgrade Pride. She and several other lesbian counselors founded the Counseling SOS line for Lesbians in 2012, where she was a workshop facilitator and psychological counselor as of 2017.

Recognition Mlađenović received the Felipa de Souza Award, awarded by OutRight Action International, for her contribution to LGBT human-rights activism in 1994 at a Pride celebration in New York. as part of a lesbian study visit.

Publications From 1992 to 2012, Mlađenović was a member of and lecturer at the Center for Women's Studies in Belgrade. In her manifesto, "Politics of Women’s Solidarity", she says: