The flea market of Alfa is not just a gipsy market - if you are interested to discover gipsy culture it is a funny and interesting way to do it.
When we decided to develope our own project about social inclusion, most of us were worried about how to involve gipsy women in our activities..
This is still theme of debate and seems that it will be not so easy to do it!
That’s why I was in the gipsy market to speak with some of them and to ask what we can do and how they can join us.
Among mountains of coloured clothes, we spoke about their life and their work and it was really surprising for me how they were glad to speak about themselves.
Now enumerating all their problems would take days of my life. Problems they have are not so different from those what other women have all over the world, but I'll take into account those problems that forbid them to join us in our activities and project.
The working hours at the market are, for many of them , free hours... they are working, but in the meantime they are not controlled by men of the community. That’s why they do enjoy so much these days.
Concerning our project, which are the problems we have to overcome to permit a free participation of women? This is what i learned from Lyuba, Mirela, Tsora, Nadia and Elena:
Most of them cannot take part in our activities because they have to take care of their own families: gipsy women marry when they are about 13 or 14 years of age. This is the most common age for marriage. These girls usually do not have any education, nor do the boys who they marry. So, they depend on their families, they have to feed them and provide a living for them. They live with the parents of the boy even if they must all live in a one-room house.
They told me they can divorce. Since they have no education or anything else, the young women have to go begging in the streets. There is no choice in the matter since she must do something to support herself. Like the marriage, the life of begging isn't her choice. Other women will return to their families and the family will choose for her a new man to marry. They think that marriage is the best thing for a woman, even if the man doesn't have any work or education. So, they can go out of their community to work. I mean, to beg. “Free time” is a concept they don’t understand.
A huge problem is the collective control. In their community they have some days (when they are menstruating or when they are giving birth) in which they cannot do anything. They explained to me, but they were sharing and agreeing on this opinion, that woman is dirty, because she menstruates and bears children. After childbirth a woman cannot touch anything at home and to dress herself in front of an older person is disrespectful. These traditions, or limits, are very important and gipsy women have more rules to follow than men. If the rules are broken, there are punishments, and it is easy to be rejected by the collective.
Working with children at Curcubeu, I also noticed a big difference in behaviour between boys and girls...
These are the problems we have to face if we really want social inclusion.
