POSING for selfies, slapping on lipstick and dancing around a bedroom strewn with clothing, these young teens could be from almost any city in the world.
Only the young women from Bulgaria’s Kalaidzhi — an orthodox Christian subgroup of the Roma community — will have a different fate than most.
The 18,000-strong community is widely discriminated against across Eastern Europe and renowned for fiercely guarding their cultural traditions.
Young women can be forced to leave school as soon as they have their first period, according to academic Alexey Pamporov who has studied the Roma for two decades.
The culture is also renowned for a “bridal market” held up to four times a year where young girls flock to muddy fields and parking lots around the country in red carpet gowns to meet prospective husbands.
While the generations-old market has been changed by technology and the economic downturn, it’s still one of the main ways families are introduced to one another in a country where they are economically and socially discriminated against.
Grooms pay an average of $290 to $350 for their young brides, Ms Larsson reports, however the price can go much higher.
