Bride Market of Bulgaria: Where girls are sold off to potential husbands

The Kalaidzhis an ancient community have recently caught media attention for their traditional beliefs and customs. If one visits the town of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria on the first Saturday of Orthodox Christian Lent, one would be amazed to see the whole town busy with merry making. People gather there to dance, have drinks and foods and chat with each other. Behind all the merrymaking is an old and celebrated tradition which has been celebrated on this very day that has prompted me to write this piece.The field where the merrymaking takes place is a field outside town. Here teenage girls with heavy makeup crowd the place which is locally known as the “Gypsy bride market.” The mothers also accompany their daughters, who dress in festive mood. The mothers feel proud of the fact that their daughters have reached that age in which they were successfully able to comply with the traditions of their society. One could also see gold ornaments flashing from far away. On this day the Kalaidzhis conduct a set of complex negotiations to finally settle on a bride price that leads to a marriage.

Traditionally the semi-nomadic Roma group is known because of their ancient craft of producing and repairing pots, pans and caldrons. They usually live far away from each other in villages. Girls and women are not allowed to meet or date any male members. The Roma group migrated to Bulgaria and other states of eastern Europe in about the 12 th -14 th century. The 2011 census report of Bulgaria states that only 4.4 percent of the population are Romanian Gypsies. The Roma group is outcasted by the non-Roma people, about 59-80 percent of non-Roma do not have positive feelings for them. Due to the social stigma and discrimination that they face, crime rate, unemployment rate, birth, death rates and poverty levels are higher than the rest of the population. Lack of social benefits, many are not privileged to attend school. Due to lack of proper education, they like to stick to their old tradition of the Bride Market, unaware of violation of human rights.

“Virginity” of the girls until the day of the fair is of high importance among Kalaidzhi families, because of the high price that they would be able to negotiate, otherwise non-virgin women will be sold at a lower price. This is the only time when girls are allowed to meet men by their families. Dating is not an option since teenagers are forbidden to meet without the presence of an adult. Also, marriage outside the group is a taboo. Marriage outside the group will hinder the growth of the community. Men spend about $7500 to $11300 after rounds of bargaining. According to Velcho Krustev, an ethnographer with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as cited in the New York Times, “the man is not buying a wife, but her virginity.” He also said, “If she’s really beautiful, the prices can go up.” It is a tradition for these families to marry off their daughter, between the ages of 16 and 20. Most of the girls are also taken out of schools in their 8 th grade because of the belief that they would be stolen otherwise by their suitors. From that period, they are locked up in homes. Although, there is no favourable data to prove this point, some are of the opinion it is a face-saving story when a daughter elopes. This leads to wide scale illiteracy of the women with 1 in every 5 women are illiterate. Education has always not been a priority of the society with  women facing the greater brunt of it. According to the World Bank only 10 percent of the Bulgarian women and 16 percent of the men have secondary education.A recent study by Amilape, a nongovernmental organisation in Bulgaria found that 52 percent of the Roma opposed the choice of parents involving the spouse of their children. Very few young Roma people accepted the tradition. With the intervention of mobile phones in their life they are also opened to new ways of living involving social media exchange. Of course, this has been often made discreetly, not to attract the attention of the older family members.

Kalaidzhis women provide the household labour of cooking and cleaning. Also, they have been the traditional unpaid assistant to their husbands in making the pots, pans and caldrons. The change in the society has also been partly brought by people looking up at modern education in order to secure their livelihoods. The traditional business of pot making is slowly dwindling since cheap pots are available from China. People are no longer finding the traditional occupation profitable so they move on to other jobs such as construction work in other parts of Bulgaria. When they come back, they bring certain cultures and traditions which helps to change the beliefs of the Kalaidzhis. Older women are also getting a taste of the change as they think that women now should have certainly more autonomy as compared to them. They are aware of the fact that Bulgarian women are generally not dominated by such cultures though in their tribes they still follow those cultures.Coverage by the media has brought this culture to light, but inactive government participation to ensure education of women belonging to the backward classes, has kept the tribe where it was at the beginning of the 21 st century. The women want to come out of their chains and have their own identity, but certain social norms and financial instability is what is stopping them. As the world becomes more globalised, the culture of bride selling and buying may continue with modernity of tradition. Women may be given more liberty to choose their own husbands, but the abolition of suppression will take a long time from now.

Manish Dutta

Intern, AGA