Staka Skenderova
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Staka Skenderova | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1828 |
| Died | 26 May 1891 (aged 63) Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary |
| Resting place | Holy Archangels Cemetery, Sarajevo[1] |
Staka Skenderova (1828 – 26 May 1891) was a Serb teacher, social worker, writer and folklorist from Bosnia and Herzegovina.[2] She is credited with establishing Sarajevo's first school for girls on 19 October 1858.[3] The following year, she became the first published woman author in modern Bosnia.
Skenderova was born in 1831 in Sarajevo to parents from Prijepolje in Sandžak. Her older brother sewed for the Ottoman Army, and Skenderova learned the Turkish language at a young age and taught herself to write.
Skenderova, by permission of the Ottoman authorities, was allowed to open the first school for girls in Sarajevo in 1858. She was also the first woman teacher in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
She eventually decided to become a nun. Since Bosnia at the time had no Serbian Orthodox female monastery, she was ordained as an Eastern Orthodox nun in Jerusalem in 1870.[4]
