A new film highlights the plight of girls from Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities forced into teen marriages – and how they can say ‘No’.
Romni, a short film made in Kosovo, focuses on the life of a Roma girl who runs away from early marriage to pursue her dreams.
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Faced with early, forced marriage, on her wedding day Shpresa flees her home to avoid the fate of so many of her peers.
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This film shows how families “bargain” over girls’ marriages, the socio-economic conditions in which these families find themselves, the despair in the eyes of the mothers that have to marry off their young daughters to save them from poverty – mothers who are unaware of the rights that belong to them.
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To complete the mosaic, Shpresa runs away from marriage what she does not reject with words, but, symbolically, cuts off her hair to express her dissatisfaction.
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The same issue is the subject of a documentary Like a Real Woman, which focuses on the stories of community activists dealing with early marriages, and their struggle to eliminate the phenomenon.
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The film was screened at the Armata Cinema in Prishtina on International Human Rights Day as part of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” program, with the support of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.
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