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).