Child Pawn?

Child wedding shines unwelcome light on Romania’s Roma community. 6 October 2003 BUCHAREST, Romania--Child marriage is common among some of Romania's diverse Romani communities. It took the outrage of an influential outsider to finally galvanize authorities into taking action, in the most high-profile child wedding in years.

The practice of arranged marriages and underage (even pre-pubescent) brides, however, is generally tolerated by police and social welfare agencies. But they must now count on increased scrutiny by European observers as Romania continues to lay the groundwork for European Union accession.

The story began on 27 September with a church ceremony in the central Romanian city of Sibiu. The bride, young Ana-Maria Cioaba, daughter of the one of the "kings" of the Roma, Florin Cioaba, arrived in a two-horse carriage, dressed in a costly Italian gown. Her father, a Pentecostal pastor, performed the wedding between Ana-Maria and Birita Mihai, son of a powerful Romani businessman, Mihai Mihai. The bride claims she is 14 and the groom says he is 17, but their true ages are generally thought to be 12 and 15.

During the ceremony Ana-Maria left the church briefly and seemed upset when she returned, journalists covering the event said.

The next day, several newspapers published a photo of the girl in tears and reported that her bridesmaids shouted "Down with Birita!" during the ceremony. The wedding continued without further interruptions and a week-long party with hundreds of guests got under way.

On the morrow of the wedding night the guests were shown the blood-stained sheets that proved the bride's virginity, most media reported.

In Romanian law a religious wedding cannot be performed until a civil ceremony has been held. Although no civil wedding had taken place--nor could have, legally, because the bride and groom were underage--local authorities allowed the church ceremony to go ahead. Police presence was limited to traffic control.

BRUSSELS STEPS IN

When reports of the wedding appeared in the Western press, many included a quote from a friend of the bride, Dana Chendea, saying that legally, the wedding was "a rape." The EU's observer in Romania, Baroness Emma Nicholson, reacted swiftly, asking the government to intervene and separate the couple.

European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Anna Diamantopoulou also complained.

The commissioner, who last summer called on Romani leaders across Europe to put an end to the practice of arranged child marriage, said the wedding was illegal. When custom conflicts with human rights, she said, "custom should adjust to modern principles."

The Sibiu County child protection agency then took action, telling the couple they must separate and stay with their families until they reach the legal age of marriage. The law prohibits children under the age of 16 from marrying, although girls may marry at 15 with parental consent.

A government official, Serban Mihailescu, said authorities would investigate the circumstances of the marriage and might remove Ana-Maria from her parents' care, as Nicholson asked.

The negative reaction to the marriage angered some Roma.

"The government's intervention is a sign of a dictatorial state. We should keep our traditions alive. It is immoral and dangerous to ban a custom," said Vasile Ionescu, head of the Roma Center for Social Politics.

"My daughter has a father who loves her and that wants all the best in the world for her," Florin Cioaba said in an open letter to Nicholson. "The wedding was according to our community custom and I have to say it is something we are very proud of. I also married when I was 14 and my wife was 13.

"According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the marriage is legal, because it respects ethnical traditions", said Cioaba, who even asked Nicholson to stand as godmother to the new couple's first-born.

But there were also Romani voices opposed to the wedding.

Madalin Voicu, the only Romani representative in the Romanian parliament, said the wedding was shameful. The Roma should give up traditions that conflicted with "certain moral, educational, and civic standards," he told Radio Free Europe.

With the eyes of the world upon them, Romanian authorities kept up the pressure on the long-tolerated practice of child marriage. Police said the young groom could be charged with the offense of having sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 15.

Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who also teaches law, said the situation raised an issue that should be solved "by the penal law. We don't encourage this way of starting a family."

The custom of child marriage is thought to be followed by only about 10 percent of Romania's Roma.

The practice is strongest among the Calderash Roma, traditional makers and repairers of copperware and still involved in the metals trade. After 1989, some Calderash in Transylvania took advantage of the new opportunities for private businesses to thrive. Two of the most successful families are the Cioabas and the Mihais of Sibiu.

CUSTOM VS. PROGRESS

At local authorities' request, the Cioabas and the Mihais gave statements to the police. Local authorities also asked that Ana-Maria see a gynecologist. A week after the wedding, she had not yet done so, and her continued refusal could bring the criminal investigation to a halt.

Some suggested that would be no bad thing for the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD).

One party source told TOL that the PSD needed to remember its heavy support among Roma voters. Local and national elections will take place next year. In the three previous parliamentary elections, more than 60 percent of Roma voters cast ballots for the PSD or its predecessors. Voicu, one of the most influential Roma politicians in the country, is a PSD deputy.

Nicholson declared herself satisfied with the Romanian authorities' reaction, apparently unaware of at least three other recent child weddings in Valcea and Mehedinti counties. One of the brides was only 9 years old, according to "princess" Luminita, Florin Cioaba's daughter, who appeared on Antena 1 television on 1 October.

The chief of the Valcea County child protection agency, Maria Munteanu, said that her office had no legal right to interfere in the proceedings. "We sent some social workers and police to watch the weddings and, if we find evidence of an abuse, we can take the right decision," she told the daily Cotidianul.

In theory, at least, the authorities know that prevention is the best cure for the problem of child weddings.

"We will start a special program for the Calderash Roma communities. We will try to counsel them on [child] weddings", announced Gabriela Coman, president of the National Authority for Child Protection.

But it's not easy to see what concrete steps the Romanian or European authorities can take to change the course of this old tradition.

Meanwhile, at least some Roma children will go on feeling that custom is stealing their childhood.

--by Razvan Amariei