Protest brings a sense of belonging

Student activist Merima waving a Serbian flag as she is welcomed at the end of her 400km journey to Novi Sad. Avdic walked from her university, which was the site of a successful year-long student protest against corruption, to join another gathering demanding accountablity from the government following a fatal railway station collapse in the city. — Reuters

WHEN Merima Avdic crossed a bridge over the Danube River to reach the city of Novi Sad in November, a Serbian flag in her hand, fireworks lit the sky and tens of thousands of protesting students cheered to welcome her and her peers.

She had walked more than 400km from the university of Novi Pazar in the Muslim-majority Sandzak region of southwest Serbia, to join one of the largest and longest protests in the country in decades, triggered by the collapse of a railway station roof a year earlier.