Azerbaijan: Romani people struggle for daily survival in a discriminatory environment
In the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh, local Romani women say there is no choice but to beg in order to make a living because they continue to face discrimination. Local Romani women have been complaining to reporters for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that they receive almost no financial support from local authorities, which deny those allegations.
“If the government gave me money for shoes, food and clothes for my children, we wouldn’t need to go out begging,” said Gulpari Mammadova, who initially did not want to speak on camera because she has previously been mistreated by police for speaking to the media. “[The children] see there’s no bread at home, that there’s no food. They go out to beg, they bring some bread and food home. They have to. Should we sit at home and die of hunger?” Mammadova desperately asked RFE/RL.
According to an unofficial estimate, about 10,000 Romani people live in Azerbaijan. Many identify as Kurds, but locals call them “Gypsies”.
Mammadova told RFE/RL that she loves her country. An Azerbaijani flag that she rescued from a garbage can hangs on one of her walls.
The Romani mother told RFE/RL that she has applied for welfare many times for herself and her nine children. “How long should I wait for that money? It doesn’t befit our Azerbaijani Muslim nation that [our children] pull out dry bread from the garbage, wet it and eat it,” she said in tears.
Mammadova also said she hopes her children will take care of her when she is elderly. Azerbaijani Romani people live separately from the majority society.
