When Merima Avdić crossed the bridge over the Danube to arrive in Novi Sad in November, with a Serbian flag in her hand, fireworks lit up the sky, and tens of thousands of protesting students welcomed her and her colleagues with standing ovations.
She walked more than 400 kilometers from the University of Novi Pazar, in the predominantly Muslim Sandzak region of southwestern Serbia, to join one of the country's largest and longest-running protests in decades, sparked by the collapse of a train station roof a year earlier in Novi Sad.
The accident killed 16 people, leading to calls for the government to resign, amid accusations of corruption and lack of accountability, Reuters recalls, adding that government officials reject accusations of state corruption that allegedly led to poor construction standards.
Joining thousands of protesters in Novi Sad was a huge moment for Avdić, a student from Serbia's Bosniak Muslim minority who wears a hijab. Upon arriving in Novi Sad, she said she finally felt like she belonged in Serbia.
“During the hike, I was amazed at how many people stood by us and came out to tell us that we were not alone,” Merima told Reuters. “A gentleman from Kosjerić gave us his flag because we didn’t have one. We marched with it to Novi Sad.”
Muslims represent 4% of Serbia's population, and more than half live in Sandžak, where Avdić was born.
The protests that swept Serbia over the past year were led by students and, as Reuters reports, united Serbian citizens of all ethnicities and age groups, bound by a common urge for reform and an end to corruption.
Rarely has the new sense of unity in protest been seen more clearly than at the State University of Novi Pazar, where a community that once faced prejudice and state repression now feels accepted in a broader movement for change.
Founded in 2007, the university provided the Bosniak minority with access to local, state-funded higher education for the first time. But national acceptance of their community came much later, the British agency points out.
Avdić sensed the national turn already during the trip to Novi Sad. The students even spent a night in the medieval Orthodox monastery of Studenica, where they were served a halal breakfast - something that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.
Reuters writes that the Muslim population in Sandzak has long felt marginalized, and in a non-binding referendum in 1991, as many as 99% of voters in that region voted for autonomy from Serbia.
“For the last 30 years, Novi Pazar has been pushed aside, people have lived in fear and never dared to stand up,” Avdić said. “I am proud of myself and my colleagues, of how we have broken down prejudices and shown that we want to live in this country.”
A photo from a protest in Kraljevo, central Serbia, captured Nadija Delimedžac, a student from Novi Pazar wearing a hijab, and Sava Nikolić from Ćuprija wearing a traditional Serbian šajkač. The photo went viral on social media and became a symbol of the changes initiated by the students.
The months-long, almost year-long blockade of the State University in Novi Pazar by students ended a little over a week ago, after the replacement of the rector and the lifting of the ban on 200 students who had been expelled for anti-government activism.
Their protest lasted longer than at most other universities in Serbia, and students occupied the buildings even after the authorities turned off the heating.
"I am amazed by the sacrifice they made," Nadija's father, Muamer Delimedžac, told the British agency, speaking about the march to Novi Sad. "Diversity is our wealth."
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