@nytimes

Many Roma women face pressures to marry young and take on traditional gender roles. Pretty Loud, a hip-hop group from Serbia, wants girls to decide for themselves. Persecuted for centuries, many Roma people in Europe — the continent’s largest ethnic minority — live in segregated communities with limited access to amenities and health care. Women and girls also face gender expectations like being wives and mothers at a young age, which some say cause stress and isolation. The members of Pretty Loud, possibly the world’s first all-Roma female hip-hop group, focus their songs on the pains Roma women experience: marrying and having children too young, feeling like second-class citizens and not finishing high school. “Don’t force me, Dad, I’m too young for marriage,” the six members, who are in their midteens to late 20s, sing in one song.  The women of Pretty Loud are hoping their music, authenticity and visibility as performers — already rewriting social conventions in their community in Belgrade, the Serbian capital — can help women and girls elsewhere find their own voices. Video and photos by @laetitiavancon and @b.clendenin  Tap this link to read more about Pretty Loud: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/world/europe/roma-hip-hop-band-serbia-pretty-loud.html

October 30, 2021