Chai Bari

Chai Bari is a visual exploration on early marriage in a Roma community from Romania. In very rare situations, Roma girls succeed to avoid early marriage and eventually finish their studies in universities.

This series of photographs is part of a larger project of mine about Roma people from Gratia, Romania. The subject is the young marriage and chai bari means virgin in Romanes language. In the Roma tradition, the young marriage has many layers and the subject is vast. The tradition is old and has various motivation. In the 19th century when the Roma were slaves, the owners would take advantage and abuse sexually the girls, so the community started the early marriage system to avoid such situations. Or, from another perspective, early marriage is associated with precarious economic conditions and poverty. Various NGOs have started campaigns to raise awareness and to prevent early marriages in Romania. In the meantime, the Roma girls are forced to marry at age of 11-12 and the union between the families is meant to be lifelong, they use to support each other and to give full trust each other. The bride has to be chai bari (virgin) to be sure that no foreign blood will enter the family. One reason why the bride's family wants to marry her so early is to avoid the risk of being taken and raped. That is also a reason for interrupting the education in school at that age. In the school, the girl could fall in love with Romanian boys and this would lead to complications, so the Roma people prefer to marry their children inside their community. The bride's parents receive money for the bride from the groom's family. The bigger the amount of money or gold is, the better, it is a sign of security, stability for the new couple. The money represents the payment for the future children of the new couple and also the future work which will be done by the bride in the groom's family. Both families will take care of the new couple and they will intervene whenever needed in establishing the balance inside the new family.

In my series are two sisters, Madonna and Regina. I've started photographing them in 2020. Madonna married in 2022 at age of 12. The younger sister, Regina, is now 8 years young. I'll continue to explore the topic of early marriage and I will publish a photo book. I believe that this topic needs more attention and discussions, raised awareness and new solutions.