MARRIAGE AGE AND EARLY MARRIAGES AMONG ROMANI GIRLS IN BULGARIA (e-paper)

Sofiya Zahova
Bulgarian Academy of Siences

 

 

The article discusses the phenomena of marriageable age and early marriages among Romani girls in Bulgaria. It endeavors to identify the main factors related to these phenomena, and discusses what contributes to maintaining or changing of the practice of early marriages. The article reveals the national trends from the last two decades regarding age at marriage showing a clear tendency of increase. As in the institutional discourse the Romani girls’ drop-outs before graduating compulsory education is explained by the ‘tradition of Roma to get their daughters married early’ the article also discusses does a drop out of school necessarily mean early marriage conclusion. It proposes a typology of three practices regarding marriageable age and educational level, providing examples from Romani groups.