On International Roma Day, “Zorale Jiuvlea” brought to the public the stories of inspiring Roma women
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On International Roma Day, 10th of April, at a dedicated event organized by the Bureau of Interethnic Relations together with the Roma Women Platform, UN Women Moldova launched a brochure with 10 stories of successful Roma women from Moldova who overcame barriers and achieved remarkable results. In order to disseminate positive examples of women who managed to break stereotypes, this publication contains stories of women who succeeded in various fields, such as sports, education, politics, public order, leadership, arts, technologies, as well as generally overcoming difficult life situations.
At the event, the women whose stories feature in the brochure had the opportunity to talk about their experiences and share with the public and media the factors which offered them courage and strength to stand for their rights and ideals.
"I succeeded and managed to make my own decisions because I had successful women role models in my local village in Drochia”, claimed Alvetina Neniţă, an IT student and radio engineer.
Similarly, Victoria Luca, a lawyer and a women’s rights activist asserted that “my aim is to help other women and girls, to do what is often necessary, not only what I think I want to do.”
"These successful models exist and there are a lot of them out there. That is why it is important to discover and make them known so other girls and boys can follow their example”, explained Ulziisuren Jamsran, UN Women Moldova Representative.
In Moldova, Roma women and girls still represent one of the most disadvantaged group. Their vulnerability to social exclusion is caused by a number of gender, class, ethnicity, race-based discriminatory factors that influence not only their role and position in the community, but also equal access to education, labour market, earning of income, health care, social protection, quality of housing, civic and political life, justice.
Therefore, the limited participation of Romani women and girls in the decision-making process at the family and community level, as well as the reduced participation in the civic and political life is determined by a set of social discriminatory norms of the Roma community, but also society’s prejudices about a woman’s role in the public and political life.[1]
After the official launch in Chisinau, the “Zorale Jiuvlea” brochure will be separately launched and disseminated in 14 localities in Moldova. Roma and non-roma local community members, as well as mass media will have the chance to discuss with the women protagonists about overcoming barriers, stereotypes as well as how to tackle the often-encountered problems.
In Romani language “zorale jiuvlea” means “strong women”. This publication is part of the campaign launched by UN Women to improve the image of Roma women in media, to stress their enormous contribution in the society and to promote successful models in media and communities.
[1] IPP/Soros-Moldova/SOIR (2015). Percepţiile populaţiei Republicii Moldova privind fenomenul discriminării: studiu comparativ.