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Last week I spoke with a social worker supporting Roma in Romania. She speaks the language & loves the people but called the state of womens & girls rights abysmal. A frequent continuum of child abuse leads Romani women & girls into European prostitution.
She said that girls are often raped by cousins or uncles resulting in unwanted pregnancies resulting in social exclusion and shame of the victim making her rife for the taking of pimps to bring her to e.g. Germany. Because she is now an outcast among outcasts.
Common is marrying off girls around 14-15 to sometimes considerably older men as families can't afford to feed, house and educate all their children: https://www.duvarenglish.com/human-rights/2020/08/18/turkeys-roma-women-come-out-in-support-of-istanbul-convention/ Romani feminists around Europe are fighting this hard. This is not a tradition they wish to preserve.
The poverty is often extreme: Houses without running water and electricity. Living with animals for warmth and food. Not being able to afford basic necessities such as diapers for children. Nevermind school and university in all places where they are not for free. Girls loose.
Romani people have a long history of being enslaved and genocided by other European cultures. Yet the image of them as lazy criminals rather than victims remains widespread and because of the denied opportunities and lack of education generations have no option but crime.
Thus Romani girls & women like many female minorities are stuck between a hostile often violent outside world & many men in their own community viewing them as little more than reproductive machines and/or a potential prostitute to go to countries like Germany & bring home money.
The demand of German, Dutch, British and other privileged European men demands the poorest of the poor to make unimaginable sacrifices: In parts of Germany women make so little money they are paid in coins. They can turn no man and no practice down and have to endure the worst.
"I saw no other way. I prostituted to survive. My children had no food. I had no job. The journey to Zurich was not worth it. I'm just as poor as before." Says a woman from a Hungarian Roma ghetto with lack of water, no social services & rightwing violence https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/10vor10/video/das-elend-der-roma-prostituierten?id=48d99c07-7067-4743-aa0e-a10bb9f6499b
Romani girls in this village want to be teachers, hair dressers and retail workers. Yes. Retail work. Because it is nothing like prostitution. It's not a daily threat of rape and murder. It offers a comparable stability and normalcy these girls dream of. https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/10vor10/video/das-elend-der-roma-prostituierten?id=48d99c07-7067-4743-aa0e-a10bb9f6499b
So poor they can't feed their children. Often abused and first exploited as children. Under the control of local and foreign pimps. Dreaming of meaningful opportunities but finding nothing: The prostitution of Romani women in Europe is #NeitherSexNorWork. https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/10vor10/video/das-elend-der-roma-prostituierten?id=48d99c07-7067-4743-aa0e-a10bb9f6499b
