Tributes pour in for Czech dissident Jiřina Šiklová: 'A true facilitator of change'

Czech dissident, sociologist, and pioneer of gender studies Jiřina Šiklová, a signatory of the Charter 77 dissident manifesto, died on May 22 at the age of 85.

Many people have praised her accomplishments over social media. The foundation Vize 97, founded by former president Václav Havel, said her passing was a loss for the whole nation, adding that she was a brave and energetic woman. "Honor her memory!" the foundation tweeted.

The Canadian Embassy in Prague shared a 2007 video where Šiklová discussed life in Czechoslovakia under communism.

Markéta Pekarová Adamová, chairman of the TOP 09 party, recalled how much Šiklová’s 2009 book Mothers By E-mail (Matky po e-mailu) meant to her, and urged others to read it.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Šiklová helped smuggle clandestinely published samizdat literature abroad and also brought foreign publications into Czechoslovakia. She spent one year in custody in 1981 for bringing in banned publications.

After the fall of communist in 1989, she founded the social work department at Charles University. In the lecture plan, she had gender topics approved at social science faculties of social sciences across the country. Until that time, it had not been taught as a subject. In 1991 she founded a gender studies center and library in Prague, initially using her own apartment and collections as a base.

"She recognized that local women's emancipation was a token of the regime and that many unresolved issues silently and painfully waited for attention under the surface of both men's and women's lives," said Simerská, who called Šiklová a true facilitator of change in society.

Charles University, in announcing her passing on Twitter, said that she will always be a model of combining erudition and civic engagement.

Labor and Social Affairs Minister Jana Maláčová called her a brave, tireless, an unique personality who was always full of energy. "Jiřina Šiklová has left an indelible mark in sociology, gender studies and social work. She will be missed here," she said.

Šiklová wrote several books and published studies in dozens of journals. In 1995, she received the Woman of Europe prize, given to women who contributed to European integration. Four years later, she was awarded the Medal of Merit in the First Degree by then-president Havel. Last year on her 85th birthday, she received the Silver Medal from the Czech Senate.

Šiklová was born on June 17, 1935. She graduated from history and philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. In 1965, she helped open a department of sociology there.

During her studies, when she was 21, she joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). "If one wants to take part in some changes, one has to be engaged for this," Šiklová said later.

She tried to encourage reforms within the party and in 1968 became an official and the leader of a party group at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. She the signed the June 1968 manifesto called Two Tousand Words, which called for extensive reforms.

After the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, she was expelled from the Communist Party and also lost her position at Charles University due to her reformist stance.

She said she was proud of having been expelled right in 1969, being in a "good company" of dissident philosopher Jan Patočka and other personalities.

She then worked as a janitor in the national library in Klementinum in Prague, where she also continued to study and worked on her reports.

In the early 1970s she became a social worker at the geriatric ward in Thomayer Hospital in Prague, where she was able to participate in research but she could not publish under he own name.

Throughout the 1970s Šiklová and fellow dissident Petr Pithart were among a group of people who transported books and newspapers to Czechoslovakia. At the same time she helped bring clandestinely published literature to the Documentation Center of the Czechoslovak Independent Culture, headed by Vilem Prečan, in Scheinfeld, Germany. She also signed Charter 77 during this time.

The smuggling channel functioned for a very long time. However, the communist police seized one of the trucks carrying the samizdat literature in 1981, and Šiklová along with another eight people were sent to one year in prison.

Following international protests, they were eventually released from prison. While there, Šiklová applied her organizational talent, holding courses of English and German for her fellow prisoners.

She herself later called the stay in prison an "interesting participant observation."

Pithart, who would later be the first prime minister of the Czech Republic and then president of the Senate, said she had been a lifelong friend and was always looking for ways to help people.

Another lifelong friend, Constitutional Court President Pavel Rychetský, said that her departure was a tangible loss for the whole country, and that she is owed thanks for her efforts to smuggle literature.

Šiklová was also actively involved in politics. She ran for office for the Green Party in both European and Czech elections in 2009–10, but did not win. She urged people at this time to be more willing to accept refugees and not to be afraid of Islam.

She was proud of the accomplishments she made during her life.

"I have good children with whom I have good relations. I have never compromised myself in the social or political sense. I am glad that I have succeeded in this. I like my life," she said.