No, it exists here as well. If you look at photographs from funerals in
rural Bosnia, and there are many, you'll often notice the women at the
graves are always alone and the bodies are already in the ground. They
show up to do what they do once the main funeral is completed.
This exists even in Sarajevo if the family is trying to show great
respect. For example, the cemetery for Serbian martyrs - Sarajevo Serbs
who died fighting the Serbian nationalists laying siege to the city -
Muslim women would come to tend to the graves afterwards and do for
them everything they do for Muslim martyrs. This included, in their case,
reading the Bible to them, saying a Christian rosary and leaving the
beads on the tombstone, tending the flowers, and engraving their title
on their tombstone.
The grave this Muslim woman is tending, for example, says "Defender of
the City" below his very obviously Serbian name. The grave behind her
even has Cyrillic text.
Edited by Mila - 16-May-2006 at 09:39