The development of a society that is unburdened by sex and gender categories can be learned through socialising and fun, through a deck of cards. Fierce Women card game is proof of this. Created by Gabrijela Ivanov and Želimir Periš and their team gathered around the organisation Common Zone from Zagreb, Croatia, this card game promotes the work and life of women who made significant contributions to society in the fields of science, culture, politics, human rights, feminism, and art. For The C Word Mag, Gabrijela talks about Fierce Women, Vox Feminae Platform, independent media and feminism in Croatia. 

Vox Feminae as a platform started in 2010, but for those who are just getting to know feminism in Croatia, can you briefly introduce yourself to us? 

Expansion of Gender and Media Culture Common Zone was established in 2005 and its main program - Vox Feminae - is a space of gender and media culture which acts as a platform of voices. The mission of the organisation is to increase the visibility and influence of women and all the other gender aware individuals and groups who, through their work, contribute to the creation of a society of gender equality and by their own example encourage socially responsible action. We do that by engaging in innovative cultural and artistic practices, media production, advocacy, social entrepreneurship, education and expanding spaces in which communities can thrive.

Common Zone is from its beginnings working on expanding spaces for affirmation, education and more visibility of its primary target groups: women, youth and LGBT persons. The organisation is also providing services to OCD’s is Croatia aimed at raising their visibility such as video and web production. Our media production involves many young volunteers, who are trained and encouraged to think critically about gender and mainstream media. Common Zone has extensive experience working with youth, artists, LGBT community and elderly. The organisation is he biggest CSO advocate for gender balance in media and cultural sector in Croatia, and also has experience in advocating LGBT workplace equality.

Their main projects and activities are Vox Feminae festival - a festival of creative gender practices which is held every year in Zagreb, Croatia, and since 2007 promotes  gender issues through international competitive film programme, workshops, exhibitions and appearances of female musicians, artists, activists and theoreticians. The web page Voxfeminae.net publishes articles since 2010 and includes views, reviews, interviews, news and comments on culture and social giving media space to artists, theorists, activists, entrepreneurs and all those whose work is essential to make more visible. VoxFeminae.net is both: a media created by professionals (journalists, academics and activists) and a community media (made by and for women, youth,  LGBT persons and women artists)  and a currently major media in Croatia dealing with gender issues reaching up to 60 000 visits per month. The organisation is also producing documentary films and video reportages that deal with women's status in society and provide better visibility of their actions.  

How do you, as a non-profit organisation, manage to survive, especially in recent years?

Today Common Zone has staff of 40, of which 8 are employed, 22 people per year are paid monthly based on their contribution and 10 people work on voluntary basis. A few years ago we had a staff of 70, but in these times when gender issues and independent media are under systematic pressure due to rise of right wing forces, we struggle. But we still managed to keep our paid staff members, mostly due to solidarity within the team and shift to social entrepreneurship with Fierce Women. 

How did you came up with the idea for Fierce Women?

The Fierce Women game was named after the eponymous section on our VoxFeminae.net website, which promotes the work and contributions of women to society through informative biographical texts. It is one of the most popular sections among our readers. By summarizing those texts and engaging 8 Croatian female artists: Sanja Stojković, Rina Barbarić, Tea Šokac, Željka Tkalčec, Ana Kovačić, Ivana Štrukelj, Branka Hollingsworth and Nataša Rašović and writer and programmer Želimir Periš, we’ve created the Fierce Women deck in 2018, because we wanted to spread the word about fierce women in playful, fun and artistic manner. In 2017, we made a prototype, then ran a successful indiegogo campaign around on International Women’s Day in 2018.

Our goal was to fund the production of 1,000 Fierce Women decks (on English language) and start a social enterprise for the development of products that promote gender equality and social justice. More than 700 people from 40 countries backed us and the campaign gathered 32 000 US dollars making it possible for us to realise what we have promised. We founded the social enterprise FIERCE WOMEN d.o.o. in order to develop and distribute the game and complementary products. Fierce Women card game is currently available in more than 50 bookstores and stores in Croatia and via Etsy, and another 1,000 custom copies have been made for the Italian market (in Italian language). Also, we became one of 5 recipients of the “Bold” program of IKEA and MASTERCARD and were awarded a contract with IKEA Croatia. Thanks to this, we were able to publish the game in Croatian language and since International Day of Human Rights 2019. Fierce Women card game became available in IKEA Croatia.

We believe in learning through socialising and fun and want to contribute to the development of a society that is unburdened by sex and gender categories. The SozialMarie Award for Social Innovation, which we also won, tells us that we are on the right track.

What kind of game is it, what are the rules and goal of the game?  How did you choose the women of the deck?

The game consists of 60 Fierce Women cards, unique works of art with illustrated portraits and short biographies of women in science, culture, politics, human rights, feminism, and art. Among them, there is the figure of modern French cinema Agnès Varda, a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, the first lady of civil rights Rosa Parks, the first democratically elected female president Vigdis Finnbogadóttir, astronomer nicknamed Census-Taker of the Sky Annie Jump Cannon, and Mary Wollstonecraft, the original suffragette and one of the founders of feminist philosophy.

The game lasts an average of 20 minutes and is for 2 to 6 players. On top of each Fierce Women card, there is a symbol of one or more categories, i.e. the fields of an individual fierce woman. Each categorisation has its colour, and the goal is to collect as many cards as possible that can be connected by the same category. At the end of the game, the value of an individual card increases depending on the number of other players who collected cards of the same category, which gives the game a cooperative moment. Also, the game contains ten action cards that can completely change the course of the game. The rules are simple and the game is suitable for all generations. Due to its educational component, Fierce Women also can be used in the classroom or workshops. Education is crucial in building a more equal and inclusive society. We hope to share knowledge about Fierce Women through a fun, inspirational game which will help change humanity for the better.

Last year Fierce Women WoW got an extended version featuring 30 new cards of fierce women (writers, feminists, activists, artists, journalists) from Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Ireland. Inspiring ‘herstories’ of fierce women included in the WoW Cards deck were transformed into unique works of art by 15 fierce artists selected in a competition to which more than 300 artists from all over Europe applied.

The new deck was created as a part the project Women on Women (WOW), implemented by four partner organizations City of Women (Slovenia), Tiiiit! Inc. (North Macedonia), Common Zone (Croatia), and  Outlandish Theater Platform (Ireland). This WoW Cards expansion is a promotional deck printed in a limited edition of 2000 copies in October 2020, and due to COVID-19 situation they have not been able to distribute it properly, so you can follow them on social media for more info about it.