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djuvlipen · 1 year

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Autobiographies by Romani women

Ceija Stojka’s bibliography

Ceija Stojka (1933-2013) was an Austrian romani writer, painter, activist and musician. She published three autobiographies: We Live in Seclusion (1988), Travelers on This World (1992) and I Dream That I am Alive - Liberated From Bergen-Belsen (2005), in which she describes the persecution of Austrian Roma by the Nazis and the time she spent in Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen, from her perspective as a romani girl.

“A Gypsy Dreaming in Jerusalem,” Amoun Sleem

Amoun Sleem is a Palestinian Domari* woman living in Jerusalem. At 16 years old, she founded the first and only Domari rights organization in the Middle East, which aims to support the Dom people, and especially Domari women. The Dom have been facing intense racism and persecution from the Israeli State for decades.

“I write this book to show the difficulties of being Gypsy, but also to show the creativity and beauty in the Gypsy culture. I write it to thank the people who were placed in my life as helpers and encouragers. Many of them have passed away. I hope the readers will enjoy my story as I have enjoyed living it. I give thanks to God for what He has given me in these years.” (x)

“A False Dawn: My Life as a Gypsy Woman in Slovakia”, Elena Lacková

“The book recounts Lacková’s life story from her childhood in the Romani settlement until her retirement in 1980 told through the lens of an extraordinarily gifted and strong-minded Romani woman against the background of developments in the second half of the twentieth century in the former Czechoslovakia. Lacková´s fate is testimony to the fate of the Roma as a group in that country.

The text describes the frictions between, on the one hand, Lacková´s position as a Communist and a civil servant taking part in the implementation of state policies towards Roma as citizens of socialist Czechoslovakia and, on the other hand, her approach to life, her attitudes and her way of thinking, which reflect her immersion in Romani tradition and values as well as the hierarchies of rural Slovakia. Also reflected is her determination to help improve the situation of local Romani communities, which had suffered war-time persecution and isolation, and from the ignorance of the post-war local authorities. The book describes her motivation and willingness to take part in the Romani emancipation movement.” (x)

“American Gypsy,” Oksana Marafioti

Oksana Marafioti is a Russian Romani and Armenian writer, naturalized American citizen. “Marafioti’s book, American Gypsy: A Memoir, published this month, is a humorously honest story of growing up Gypsy, touring Europe with her family of performers, dealing with racism in Russia, then adapting to the U.S., where she was caught between the old world and new amid teenage angst, high school and her musician father’s psychic/exorcism business.” (x)

“Zwischen Liebe und Haß”, Philomena Franz (only in German)

Philomena Franz is a Sinti Auschwitz survivor. Her “autobiographical narrative, Zwischen Liebe und Haß: ein Zigeunerleben (1985), is significant as the first survivor account of the atrocities that were inflicted on Roma during the Second World War. For the past forty years, Franz has been active as a speaker at schools, universities, and community meetings, emphasizing the importance of remembering the Holocaust and its victims.“ (x)

“Never Enough Time in the Day: Memoir of a proud Romani woman”, Olga Fečová (only in Czech)

Olga Fečová (1942-2022) was a respected member of the Czech romani community. In her book, she “captures the idiosyncratic inhabitants of a disappeared world, one of Romani settlements where life was lived traditionally, of tenement houses with balcony hallways in the Old Town of Prague, of "colonies" housing the working class, and sincerely shares her life experience and opinions about it all” (x)

“Our Settlement”, Irena Eliášová (only in Slovak)

“Irena Eliášová was born on 3 May 1953 in the Roma settlement of Novésa (Nová Dedina u Levic) in Slovakia. Her father made a living as a musician. In the 1960s the family went to seek work in Czechia. They stayed at numerous places both in Southern and Northern Bohemia. She only finished elementary school because following her father becoming ill she had to take a job and help provide for the family as a seamstress. After getting to know her future husband the couple moved to Liberec. When her three children grew up, she finally became fully invested in her beloved writing. In 2008, she published the first book of memories called “Our Settlement”.” (x)

“Zigenerska,” Katarina Taikon (only in Swedish)

Katarina Taikon was a famous Swedish Romani rights activist, nicknamed “the Martin Luther King of Sweden.” In her autobiography, she criticizes the living conditions Roma are forced to live under in Sweden. Her book had a tremendous impact in Sweden and in the lives of Swedish Roma, as it drew attention to the poverty and the racism they face from the larger society, leading to the first social mobilizations aiming at improving the lives of Roma in Swedish society.

“Sur ces chemins où nos pas se sont effacés,” Pisla Helmstetter (only in French)

Pisla Helmstetter (1926-2013) was an Alsacian Sinti (romani) woman. In her autobiography, she reminisces about her childhood, spent travelling among French landscapes, in the 1930s, and about her teenage years, during which her family was persecuted by the Nazis, who ethnically cleansed Alsace of all its Roma, deporting them to concentration camps or forcing them to internment camps.

* whether or not the Dom should be considered Romani is debated, but since we share a common ancestry, language and history, and since the Dom identify with Romani cultural elements (like our flag) or with the term “Gypsy”, I’m including them in this post

#roma #romnia #literature #you have no idea how long this has been in my drafts #samudaripen #radical feminism #radfem

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djuvlipen · 1 year

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02/17/2023 Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has condemned the approach taken by the Health Ministry in connection with the compensation being paid to illegally sterilized women. He has called the behavior of the ministry bureaucrats too bureaucratic and unhelpful.

Fiala’s statement was made for public broadcaster Czech Television’s “Reporters” program. The victims of illegal sterilizations and the nonprofit organizations aiding them have been criticizing the compensation mechanism for some time because many cases have been denied.

“I have ascertained that the bureaucrats at the Health Ministry are looking at the compensation for the women who have been affected by forced sterilization in a very unhelpful, too bureaucratic way, they want them to document matters that the women concerned objectively simply cannot,” the Prime Minister said in a text message sent to the Czech Television “Reporters” program. Of 525 women who have applied so far, just 243 have been awarded compensation, or less than half.

While bureaucrats are still handling some of the applications, more than 160 women have already been denied compensation. “They want the women to submit unambiguous evidence in the form of medical records, but many of them cannot because the documentation no longer exists,” human rights expert Monika Šimůnková explained to Czech Television.

“If medical records, as one of the main pieces of evidence, are missing, then the Health Ministry must follow the law and the administrative proceedings must unfortunately be assessed as having failed,” admitted Deputy Health Minister Josef Pavlovic (Pirates). Some women, of course, do not have these medical records because the originals have been shredded by the organizations maintaining them.

Some of the women whose applications have been denied by the ministry then turned to the courts, and the first-instance courts have agreed with them in at least two cases. “At this moment there are already at least two judgments overturning the Health Ministry’s decisions as too strict and too formal. The ministry has appealed those judgments through a cassation complaint and is awaiting the Supreme Administrative Court’s verdict,” Czech Television reports.

For example, Vlasta Holubová, who was sterilized against her will at Fifejdy Hospital in Ostrava at the age of 24 in 1988, has succeeded before the first-instance court. “They did this because they wanted to abate [the reproduction of] the population of Roma. That was a disgrace, including in the families, because among the Roma, a woman is rich because she gives birth, because she has children, and she is honored for it,” she told news server iRozhlas.cz.

Pavlovic said the ministry is researching the reasons for which some applications were rejected and is seeking amicable solutions, if possible. Illegal sterilizations on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic happened in the 20th century, but cases from the 21st century are also documented.

In 2005, then-ombudsman Otakar Motejl warned of this practice and also began to speak for the first time of the possibility that the victims could be compensated. His report was followed by many years of struggle by NGOs and the victims themselves until, on 1 January 2022, the law took effect that awards a one-time payment of CZK 300,000 [EUR 12,660] to the victims of illegal sterilizations.

#lil update on the forced sterilization of romnia in the czech republic #roma #forced sterilization of romani women #romani reproductive rights

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