Roma Rising

For over 500 years, the Romani people were enslaved in the Romanian principalities. You were not taught this. Not because it was forgotten, but because remembering it would require reparations. From the 14th century until abolition in 1856, we were chattel slaves in Wallachia and Moldavia. Longer than the transatlantic slave trade. Longer than most European empires lasted. The silence around this history is not empty space. It is deliberate erasure serving material interests, the interests of states that built wealth on our stolen labour, of churches that held us as property, of a European project that required our elimination to justify itself. But this silence was never complete. It was filled with resistance. With songs sung in chains. With names remembered in the dark. The Architecture of Bondage The system was meticulous, codified, and absolute.  Roma were classified into three categories of property:  Crown slaves owned by the state,  Church slaves owned by monaster...

I’m here not to speak of generalisations, but of blood. Of bruises. Of bodies. Of the women and girls whose suffering is harvested by fascists and repackaged as propaganda, their pain commodified, their trauma weaponised, their truth erased. The far right in this country has perfected a particular cruelty: they drape themselves in the language of protection whilst being the very architects of violence. They shout about "safeguarding our women" whilst their hands are stained with the blood of those they claim to defend. This is not new. This is the oldest trick in the fascist playbook. From the lynching trees of the American South, where Black men were murdered based on lies about protecting white womanhood, to the colonial "civilising missions" that claimed to save brown women from brown men whilst raping and pillaging entire continents, to Nazi propaganda that painted Jewish men as sexual predators whilst the Porajmos—the Roma Holocaust—murdered, sterilised, experi...

We are not your fantasy. Not your exotic dream draped in gold coins and scarlet skirts, spinning for your entertainment whilst you clutch your wallets tighter. The fetishisation of Romani women is violence dressed in desire, a colonial gaze that strips us of autonomy, reduces centuries of resistance to a costume, and packages our trauma as sensuality. This is not about appreciation. This is about appropriation, objectification, and the systematic erasure of our humanity whilst our bodies are consumed as spectacle. This is not about individual intent, though individuals participate. This is about systems: the fashion industry, the film industry, the wellness industry, the state. Systems that profit from our image whilst denying our humanity. This is written for my sisters who have been reduced to caricature, and for those who have participated in that reduction, knowingly or not. For the Roma women, navigating a world that wants us as ornaments but not as equals. And for those who benef...

Content Warning: This article discusses gender-based violence, forced sterilisation, hate crimes, and systemic abuse. Support resources are provided at the end. Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Yet Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) women in the UK remain almost entirely absent from these conversations. This absence reflects centuries of discrimination that continues to devastate these women's lives. Violence and Safety A 2017 Traveller Movement study found that 61% of GRT women had experienced domestic violence in their lifetime, compared to 27% of women in the general UK population. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights' 2019 survey found that only 18% of Romani women who experienced abuse reported it to police, suggesting the true prevalence may be even higher. Discrimination The European Social Survey (2020) found that 44% of UK respondents would mind having a Gypsy or Traveller neighbour—higher than for any other ethnic or relig...

In July 2024, the High Court ruled that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 unlawfully discriminates against Romani and Gypsy communities. Yet the Government continues to enforce it. This is the story of legislation designed to erase a culture—and why we must fight back now. KEY FACTS • High Court ruled the Act discriminatory under Article 14 ECHR (July 2024) • 4,000 authorised pitch shortfall across England—yet funding has been cut since 2010 • 56% reduction in stopping sites between 2020-2023 as local authorities close sites and accelerate evictions • Used only 34 times in the first year across 43 police forces—undermining Government claims of necessity • 90% rejection rate for Traveller planning applications vs. 10% for conventional housing • Gypsy and Traveller life expectancy is 10-12 years lower than the national average • Traveller women are 20 times more likely to experience maternal mortality The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has bec...