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Photo-essay: Bosnian women miners still going strong

In 2016, when mandatory retirement kicks in, they will be the last of their kind.

THEY’RE A LEGACY of communism – a group of hardy women working deep underground in Bosnia’s aging coal mines. They’re set to retire in three years, marking the end of an era.

In communist Yugoslavia, authorities wanted to promote gender equality and encouraged women to attend schools and get jobs instead of staying home and raising kids. Factories filled with a new work force, and it was not uncommon to see women working as coal miners.

Despite technology dating back to 1986 and the risk of accidents – more than 70 people died in the 1970s in two separate incidents – the 10 women in Breza, northwest of Sarajevo, seem to love their jobs. They enjoy the banter with the 500 or so men. The shafts and elevators echo with laughter and tales of grandchildren.

Paying around 500 euros ($675) a month, mining offers a stable income in a country with almost 30 percent unemployment.

Many younger, female colleagues work in the administrative office above ground — but Sakiba Colic and Semsa Hadzo prefer the pit.

“We are always in a good mood down there,” says Colic. “We get along great with our comrades and we love the jokes that are thrown around.”

For decades she tours the pits and checks the airflow, the amount of methane in the air and the temperature. But in 2016, when mandatory retirement kicks in, they will be the last of their kind.

“They are very responsible and precise,” said pit supervisor Alija Salkic. “But I still think this is not a job for a woman. It’s hard and some are already grandmothers. Somehow, that’s a bit too much.”

In Breza, almost everybody is connected to the coal mine. People for the most part have gotten used to the sight of the women miners. But once, Colic recalled, “an old lady had to touch me to see if I was real.”

Hadzo says none of her four sisters “would ever dare to go down” but insists she has no regrets.

Putting on lipstick and drying her hair after a shower at the mine, she ponders for a second what she’d do if she had her time all over again.

And there’s no doubt in her mind: “I would be in the mine.”

Coal technologist
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  • Coal technologist

    Semsa Hadzo, a Bosnian coal technologist, speaks on the phone while waiting to begin her 8-hour shift.
  • Down the shaft

    A Bosnian miner rides an elevator on the way down the coal shaft of the mine in Breza.
  • Coal mine train

    Miners Sakiba Colic, right, and Semsa Hadzo, left, Bosnian coal technologists, ride a coal mine train during their 8-hour shift.
  • Bosnian woman miners

    Coal miners Sakiba Colic, left, and Semsa Hadzo, right, Bosnian coal technologists, are checking air flow and temperature at 450 meters underground in the shaft of the coal mine.
  • Coal miners

    Coal miners Semsa Hadzo, left, and Sakiba Colic, right, Bosnian coal technologists, walk through the underground tunnels of the coal mine.
  • Bosnia female colliers

    Coal miner Sakiba Colic, a Bosnian coal technologist, measures air temperature.
  • Coal mine

    Miner Sakiba Colic and one of her colleagues are seen through a smeared window outside the shaft of the coal mine in Breza.
  • Woman coal miners

    Sakiba Colic, right, and Semsa Hadzo, left, Bosnian coal technologists, ride a coal mine train on the way out of the shaft at the end of their 8-hour shift.
  • Bosnian woman miners

    Woman cCtechnologist, walks away from her colleagues at the entrance to the shaft of the coal mine in Breza, 20 kms north of Sarajevo, after completing her 8-hour shift at 450 meters under ground.
  • Female coal miners

    Sakiba Colic, left, and Semsa Hadzo, right, exchange jokes and laugh outside the shaft of the coal mine in Breza, 20 kms north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, after completing their 8-hour shift.

(All images: Amel Emric/AP)

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5 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Steve T
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    Sep 25th 2018, 7:51 PM

    Throw away the key!!

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    Mute Quentin Moriarty
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    Sep 25th 2018, 10:53 PM

    @Steve T: No need , 3 years may as well be 50 for an 81 year old .

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    Mute Sarah Connor
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:56 PM

    Infuriating arguments. “Legally Blind” does not mean can’t see, it means vision impaired (in fairness, to a significant measure, but usually can still see), and in the current photos he does not look “frail” at all. Even if he was a frail blind man, why exactly would that mean he shouldn’t serve time?

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    Mute O Swetenham
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:01 PM

    So three years then.

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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:09 PM

    @O Swetenham: Shocking that it can end up as low as 3 years. 10 years is too low as well but at least there would be a good chance he would then die in prison so there’d be little chance of him getting out again.

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    Mute James O'Brien
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:59 PM

    3 years. Thought Ireland was bad.

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    Mute tottkingham
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    Sep 25th 2018, 7:47 PM

    Hey,Hey,Hey!!!

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    Mute Joe Ryan
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    Sep 25th 2018, 9:01 PM

    Bill Crosby, an icon. How many of today’s celebrities will be exposed for who they really are in the future. Be careful who you idolize, if your into that sort of thing.

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    Mute KingCrisp
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:02 PM

    Great to see a sadistic vile sexual predator jailed. All they have to do now is to jail Trump and his group of sexual predators that he calls fine people :)

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    Mute Jimmy jones
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    Sep 25th 2018, 7:46 PM

    Hey hey hey , all the way to rest of his life in prison.

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    Mute Jaune Fujisawa
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    Sep 25th 2018, 9:19 PM

    Don’t really understand this system. 3 years or 10 years. Which is correct. Both of course not enough but that’s another issue

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    Mute Ger
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    Sep 25th 2018, 10:05 PM

    @Jaune Fujisawa: I think it’s a minimum of 3 years and the rest will depend on his behaviour and attitude towards rehabilitation in prison. For example he claims he’s not guilty and shows no remorse so is likely to refuse treatment. If that remains the case it’s likely to be more than 3 years.

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    Mute Charlie
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:03 PM

    A bipen and a bobben all the way to hell

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    Mute Brendan Oconnor
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:33 PM

    The thing is that he was always criticising black kids..about how they behave.. dressed . ECT. .. In other words an Uncle Tom . I’m glad he got his cumupance. . Hey Hey Hey .

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    Mute Liam O Reilly
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    Sep 25th 2018, 9:27 PM

    @Brendan Oconnor: Yeah because that’s the big point here, he’s an Uncle Tom.

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    Mute Dougal67
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    Sep 25th 2018, 9:18 PM

    Knew he wasn’t a nice man years ago, as his old friend Robert culp got him a job starring in an old tv show I Spy, when not many black actors got work, culp put his kneck on the line for him, years later when Cosby was a huge star culp asked him for a favor and a role, Cosby replied he was too busy! Knew he was a you know what then, but this is beyond belief, “USA TVs daddy”??? Should throw away the key his age stardom is irrelevant!!

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    Mute Kenneth Hayden
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    Sep 25th 2018, 8:10 PM

    * claps hands *

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    Mute Lily Martin
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    Sep 26th 2018, 1:24 AM

    The fact that he is now old, “legally blind” and frail should not enter into it. He committed a heinous crime and that should be the only consideration.

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    Mute Mary Maher
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    Sep 25th 2018, 11:47 PM

    I am a softie, would usually feel distressed at the prospect of an elderly person, partially blind, being sent to prison. But not in this case. Bill Cosby was a very famous and powerful person. He could have had hundreds of girls very willing to sleep with him. Instead, he chose to drug and rape those vulnerable girls who came to him for help, hope and encouragement in their career. There is something sick in his psyche.
    So now, he gets to know how it feels to be vulnerable. Learning it, too late in his life. And, by the way, very few are taken in by his feeble, old blind man, fumbling his way about behaviour.. He was always a good actor.

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    Mute Eammon Collins
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    Sep 26th 2018, 2:53 AM

    Dont drop the soap in the shower Bill or it’ll be Zip zop wop bobbity bop for you :-)

    Take some Quaaludes,ease the pain man ;-)

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    Mute Pat Mooney
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    Sep 26th 2018, 1:10 AM

    The clergy commited worse crimes
    And nothing happened to them
    Just transferred to other places
    To continue at it

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    Mute Paul Wallace
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    Sep 25th 2018, 9:24 PM

    What a mad world, who’d have thought crosby was that sort…

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    Mute Pat Mooney
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    Sep 26th 2018, 1:12 AM

    Just stating I’m not condoning
    What Cosby done

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    Mute Frankie Mangan
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    Sep 25th 2018, 11:04 PM

    Billy baby these sadists wont bother drugging you before sex where you’re going.

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    Mute Dougal67
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    Sep 25th 2018, 11:48 PM

    @Frankie Mangan: lol

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    Mute Paul Wallace
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    Sep 25th 2018, 9:22 PM

    What a mad world, who’d have thought crosby was a paedo

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    Mute Ger
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    Sep 25th 2018, 10:06 PM

    @Paul Wallace: Cosby* isn’t. His victim was an adult.

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    Mute Richard W. Kendall
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    Sep 26th 2018, 5:05 PM

    Hey, hey, hey, “Grip it & Rip it ( his arse ), here comes a “Fat Albert” right up the Hershey Highway!

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