Roma girls: between traditional values and educational aspirations

Abstract

The paper presents findings from a survey of 720 respondents: 240 Roma parents, 240 Roma boys and 240 Roma girls between 12 and 25 years of age. The subjects were from various regions of Bulgaria and were members of different ethnic groups. The main goal of the survey was to study the current attitudes that Roma communities hold regarding an existing Roma tradition – the practice of keeping a girl out of school in order to preserve her virginity. The respondents gave varied responses; however, the majority of the parents surveyed declared that they would allow their daughters to go to school despite the Roma tradition of keeping them at home to preserve their ‘cleanness’ (i.e. virginity).

Keywords:

• Roma girls
• virginity
• education
• Roma traditions

Acknowledgements

The paper presents research findings from a ‘Virginity’ project, sponsored by the ‘Women Network Program’ of the Open Society Institute, New York. Thanks to Debra Schultz and Enisa Eminova for their support and help. I would also like to thank my colleague Dr Rastislav Rosinsky and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. Thanks also to my doctoral student Biser Alekov for his help with the study.