Roma Rising

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...

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...