![]() And later, I met law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who introduced me to the concept of intersectionality between race and gender. But I really fell in love with the work of Black feminists Angela Davis and bell hooks, whose book, “ Ain’t I a Woman” became like a bible for me. She bought me the first books about feminism that I read, including works by thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir. I met Debra Schultz the American Jewish historian, who could see all these questions burning inside me. This is part of an occasional series on Romani communities. Where were women’s rights within the discussion of Romani rights? She wrote about the Holocaust and of being a woman defying constraints and traditional roles for women, for which she was ostracized by the community. It was the verses of our beloved Polish Romani poet known as Papusza (whose real name was Bronislawa Wajs) that brought me comfort. ![]() Some Romani male activists tried to monitor my sexuality and called me a “whore” when I had a relationship with a man when I wasn’t married. They determined who was a “good” Romani woman activist. Even when I joined the Romani rights movement, I was expected to behave in certain ways that men defined. As Romani people, did we really believe in human rights? Or did we only believe in human rights when it came to our rights, Romani people’s rights? What about everyone else? And who is in the position of power to define Romani rights? I debated these questions with my soul mate and fellow Romani activist, Nicolae Gheorghe.Īt the same time, I began to question the condition of women and girls in our community, and why we were treated differently from the boys and men around us. I started to wonder what elders meant when they said that we struggled for our “rights.” I learned about the discourse around the universality of human rights. I was also an activist in the Romani movement. By the late 1990s, I had graduated from university, gotten married and become a mother. Romani people have endured centuries of injustice across Europe, as an ethnic minority, yet we have a long history of resistance. Along this path of activism, however, I learned that I had to define my own understanding of what it means to be a feminist within my Romani identity. The contradictions I have witnessed led me to ask questions and eventually, to discover feminism and to fight for equality. But we all contend with patriarchy and marginalization both inside our culture and from the outside world. Others leave school out of fear of the racism they would face. Those who attend school often drop out before high school because they get married, or to care for their younger siblings and perform household chores. My parents still preserved some aspects of traditional Romani culture: They were obsessed with me maintaining my virginity and being a “good woman.” In many Romani communities, women get married as teenagers. They told me to be proud of being Roma, while non-Romani people told me there was something wrong with me. My parents raised me with a deep sense of justice and dignity. Being educated was unusual in our Romani community. My father was the first in his family to graduate from university, and my mother went to a vocational school. I grew up along Romania’s Black Sea coast.
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