ANDAROMI: Empowering andalusian Romani mother-daughter womanhood mattering through reproductive justice

Coordinators: Daniela-Eugenia Miranda and Manuel García-Ramírez.

Duration: Ongoing project.

Abstract: The post-pandemic Spain must ensure that the next generations of Romani women definitively overcome the inequalities they have suffered for centuries and harness new emerging opportunities. It is widely recognized that Romani women and girls are in risk of facing even a less prosperous life because of the pandemic, as they live and grow in environmentally more unjust contexts that obligates Romani mothers and daughters (RMD) to protect their communities as caregivers and assume gendered roles (European Commission, 2020). These gendered roles are a part of the self-construction process of womanhood. The experience of Romani womanhood in at-risk contexts in Andalusia impoverishes their lives, puts them at risk for physical and mental health, makes them vulnerable to domestic violence, precipitates school dropouts and condemns them to precarious jobs throughout the life course.

ANDAROMI proposes that Romani womanhood can be empowered through a liberating process between the mother-daughter dyad by linking their womanhood to recognition, personal and community influence from a reproductive justice lens. We understand reproductive justice as the defense and protection of the rights of women and girls to decide freely and responsibly their sexual identity, the children they wish to have, access to the information and means necessary to do so. ANDAROMI upholds the value RMD have the capacity to lead their own challenges, and that Romani organizations must be scenarios that assure RMD opportunities to advocate for their future. Through community based participatory action research, ANDAROMI aims to co-create knowledge and co-design actions between academic researchers and Romani organizations to ensure resources that offer opportunities for Romani mother and daughter alliance to advocate for their gender rights and womanhood in a post-pandemic future.

ANDAROMI will enrich the experiences and good practices developed in the research team’s initiatives funded by the DG JUSTICE of the European Commission, the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Junta de Andalucía, and Open Society Foundations.

ANDAROMI will be implemented for three years to make Spain a place of prosperity for the future of Romani womanhood and prepare RMD for the opportunities post-pandemic Andalusia will offer.

Funded by:
Regional Government of Andalusia. Department of Economy, Knowledge, Business and University.