Manar Al-Zubaidi
“We do not know what our sin was and why people hate us?” With these words, in a timid and shy voice, Zainab Mohammed, 17, spoke to Al-Jazeera Net, as she senses the bitterness of racial discrimination towards her and towards the children of her Roma community.
She says, "Since I was a little girl, I did not feel the meaning of life. My mother used to leave me with my father and go every morning to the market, to return at noon with bread and food."
She added, "I did not forget that morning, when I accompanied my mother to the market to witness the amount of humiliation and insult she endured in exchange for some money, people did not know that the same black veil sitting on the sidewalk is a Roma woman who everyone refuses to give her the slightest job opportunity and she is forced to waste her dignity in order to ask for money." .
That painful situation, which has lived in Zainab’s mind for years, has cultivated within it a single wish that it was unable to fulfill, as was the case of her family and village, a job in a government institution.
Despite all the misery that she lived, childhood desires still want to meet new friends from outside her village spend with them the best of times, but unfortunately, nothing was fulfilled from the wishes of a Roma girl who was condemned to death by society because of her race that she did not choose and was not accepted by others, "with the passage of time, he grew up Inside me is the pain and fear of people. They consider us a shame that cannot be accepted or dealt with. "
| Youth of the "I accept me as a human" initiative in the village of Al-Zuhur (Al-Jazirah) |
I'm a human
A number of young men and women launched a humanitarian initiative with the aim of spreading a culture of peaceful coexistence and societal acceptance.
The Roma community in Iraq suffers generally from the problem of community bullying. In order to support them morally and get acquainted with their reality and daily life and break the stereotype that distorted their existence, these young people launched an initiative "accept me as a human being", through which they were able to hold a dialogue session with the youth of the village, in addition to a youth-friendly experience that lasted for several hours.
Ridha Al-Badiri, one of the youth participating in the initiative, says it comes within the peace education project funded by the Iraqi Hope Association.
Gypsies are human
A number of volunteers in Al-Diwaniyah Governorate had launched a humanitarian volunteer campaign entitled "Roma People", through which they were able to achieve many gains for this group, according to Ahmed Al-Shaibani, a member of the "Accept me as a human" volunteer team.
Al-Shaibani explains to Al-Jazeera Net that his team worked in cooperation with volunteers active in supporting the Roma in the governorate since 2016, and we are still continuing in our efforts after we achieved many gains, most notably the opening of a government primary school and literacy centers after denial of the right to education continued for more than 14 Years old. "
The volunteers were not satisfied with that, and they launched another campaign to demand the right of the Roma to obtain the national card, just like the rest of the Iraqis, and they were able to do so with the help of some government officials. The youth also carried out awareness and service activities in the campaign in cooperation with local official bodies and other volunteer teams.
| A young Roma man among other youth from outside the village (Al-Jazeera) |
Break the barrier
Among the most prominent gains of the “Roma People” campaign is the breaking of part of the unjust societal barrier, according to Al-Shaibani, in addition to that sympathy and interest in the Roma segment began to grow, although it is slow and gradual, but it is considered a positive indication of the success and sustainability of the goals of the “Roma People” campaign in creating Promoting peaceful coexistence, which is difficult, requires patience, endurance and continuity, according to al-Shaibani.
The social researcher, Ibtisam Al-Mahna, believes that the Roma suffer from poverty and poor services is a natural thing that any Iraqi lives in the current circumstances, but discrimination by society and their non-acceptance of the most difficult and most prominent problems facing them.
Ibtisam notes that the failure to reform the legal reality of the Roma, and to put a mark in their official papers to distinguish them from other Iraqis, is the main reason for their suffering that will not end until the discrimination is removed.
She says that the actual lack of interest in the Roma segment and the neglect of international organizations and most local organizations to provide assistance has contributed effectively to exacerbating their suffering and the loss of their rights, and therefore recommends that it is necessary to work seriously to meet the challenges that have imposed isolation on the Roma and undermined peaceful coexistence.
The Roma live in Iraq as individuals or in small clusters in specific villages, most notably in Diwaniyah, Diyala, Basra, North Babylon, and other cities, and they often hide their identity. Their women wish to beg in the streets and intersections, while men would not find the simplest job opportunities.
Gypsies and living conditions after the occupation of Iraq in 2003 poor living conditions, in light of the complete absence of the most basic elements of life in addition to societal quarantine, discrimination and psychological phobia.