Unprotected (documentary film script)

JOVANA (Anonymous interlocutor)

The doctor then told me that I must not give birth anymore since my life was in danger. I gave birth to a lot of children and I had a lot of miscarriages. The doctor told me that I must not give birth anymore.

ĐURĐA RADULOVIĆ (Journalist of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro - CIN-CG)

Jovana had her first son at 16, and today she is breastfeeding her youngest child, born in 2021. She does not want more children.

JOVANA

When I went to get an abortion, the doctor told me that I couldn't because it was a late pregnancy and that I should come regularly for check-ups. She gave me some pills, but I complained to her that I didn't feel well. She told me that the baby was okay. When I went second time for a check-up to hear the baby's heartbeat, it was not alive. I was four months pregnant at the time.

ANDREA PERIŠIĆ (Journalist of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro - CIN-CG)

In the Roma community, as in most traditional communities, women have no choice in almost any important issue. They usually do not decide when or how many children they will have, nor about numerous aspects concerning their bodies - about safe sexual relations and reproductive health.

Violation of women's reproductive rights leaves lasting consequences for millions of women around the world, and many die, even though these rights are protected in several international acts - the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women...

ANDREA

How did your husband react when you ended up in the hospital? Have you talked about it?

JOVANA

I told him that I could no longer give birth. I told him that the doctor explained me the reasons. He didn't want to listen, so it happened again. Then I had the miscarriage, and that's when I got terrified. I was sick. From then on, I stopped having sexual relations with him for my own sake.

ĐURĐA

What birth control method do you use now?

JOVANA

I avoid having sexual relations with my husband.

ĐURĐA

Jovana knows about contraceptives but cannot afford them. Her husband, she claims, does not understand the gravity of the issue, so he does not use contraception. Whether she will get pregnant and endanger her life is left to chance. There is no severe family planning.

ANDREA

In many countries, poor women and girls usually do not decide if and when they become pregnant. According to a 2021 United Nations (UN) report, only about half of women and girls in developing countries can make decisions about their bodies, whether or not to have sex, seek healthcare, or use contraception. Denial of access to contraception or abortion, female genital mutilation, virginity tests, or early marriages results in girls and women in traditional communities not having control over their own lives. They are the modern slaves of these communities and patriarchal families.

ĐURĐA

What is the most important to you in life?

ROMA WOMEN

A roof over the head is the most important. And health. And family. Children even more. Children are wealth.

ANDREA

The greatest wealth?

ROMA WOMEN

The greatest.

ANDREA

When did you give birth for the first time? How old were you?

ROMA WOMEN

Eighteen. I was 18, and I have a child about to turn 18. I was 17. I was 16.

ANDREA

What would you teach your daughters now? What would you tell them about building their future?

ROMA WOMEN

I would tell my children to go to school so they don't experience what we had. Mothers. To finish their school, have jobs, and own roof over their head. When my daughter got married…

ANDREA

I am sorry, how old was she?

ROMA WOMEN

Thirteen.

ANDREA

Thirteen. Were you against it?

ROMA WOMEN

I was.

ĐURĐA

There are women in Montenegro who are in de facto slavery. The UNICEF study "Roma settlements in Montenegro" from 2018 shows that only three percent of women from these communities aged 15 to 49 are satisfied with family planning, while in the majority population, that percentage is six percent.

In Roma settlements, about 87 percent of women do not use contraception, mainly due to negative attitudes of their partners, financial limitations, lack of information, and fear that it is harmful to their health.

In 2019, UNICEF revealed that the abortion rate among Roma women in Serbia is twice as high as in the general population. There are no such statistics in Montenegro.

ANDREA

What is your experience? Do Roma women usually come to the examination with someone to overcome the language barrier, or is it perhaps because they feel safer that way?

MELISA SPAHIĆ (General Medicine Practitioner - Podgorica Medical Center)

One person never comes alone, often several come for an examination. Our ethics require us to be alone with the patient. However, one person always remains present due to not knowing the language. That is one of the reasons why there are two patients per examination. We also have situations when they want someone to be present while being examined because they feel more secure. They ask me to have that person present and in most cases it is the husband.

ANDREA

Young Roma women most often go to the gynecologist with older women from the family or their husbands, who often mediate between the doctor and them. Families expect women to give birth to as many children as possible, which is why illegal abortions occur, which are risky for women's lives and additionally endanger their health.

ANDREA

What are the most common diseases among Roma female members? Is their life expectancy shorter than of men from that population?

MELISA

The most common diseases in the Roma population in Montenegro are generally chronic diseases, such as hypertension diabetes mellitus, that is diabetes, diseases of the respiratory system, such as asthma and bronchitis. However, metabolic syndrome is also characteristic, which includes problems with obesity, reduced glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, kidney problems...

ANDREA

Girls who marry at an early age are exposed to health risks due to frequent childbirth, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and abortions. Early childbearing in the world is the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19. Childbirth at an early age is also a risk for infant mortality. Early pregnancy carries serious challenges, such as premature birth, hypertension, anemia, and toxemia.

MELISA

As for women in the Roma population, one of the more important factors affecting their shorter lifespan than men is the large number of births during their lifetime, as well as the hard life they lead.

ĐURĐA

Zena, you got married later?

ZENA DUBOVIĆ (Coordinator for the Roma and Egyptian community, NGO Center for Roma Initiatives Nikšić - CRINK)

Yes.

ĐURĐA

How old were you?

WOMAN

I got married at the age of 35. I have two children, a son and a daughter. I think it's never too late to get married. I favor education, especially for girls, because there is always time to get married. I am 35 years old and have succeeded in life, both in having children and my own house.

ROMA WOMEN

She should give birth to two more.

ĐURĐA

Why?

ROMA WOMEN

She cannot have only two children.

ANDREA

Why not?

ROMA WOMEN

She must have more children. That's just the way it is. That's how young girls and girls get married.

ANDREA

What is wrong with having only a boy and a girl?

ROMA WOMEN

We want an army and a lot of children.

ANDREA

In Roma settlements in 2018, the fertility rate was four and a half, so most women had four or more children, while in the general population the rate was less than two.

VESNA DELIĆ (Anthropologist)

For Roma, the community is much more important than the individual. So it was the community that decided the roles of each individual and there is a very pronounced hierarchy. If you ask me about the role of a woman, she knows exactly her place, from birth to death. Not only women, but also men. Since childhood, the girl has very little time to play. As she grows, her role is to look after her younger brothers and sisters and to help in the household. Few of them went to school, they mostly stayed at home. The woman was being prepared and taught the skills she would pass on when she became a wife and mother.

ĐURĐA

However, the situation is changing. As in the majority population, women from the Roma and Egyptian community are becoming more aware of the importance of making key decisions freely.

Research by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) from 2022 showed that in the last ten years, thousands of minors, including 14-year-old girls, have given birth in Montenegro. Early pregnancies are mostly the result of arranged marriages.

According to a 2018 UNICEF survey in Montenegro, more than a quarter of Roma and Egyptian girls aged 15 to 19 have given birth, while in the general population that percentage is one percent.

ŠEJLA PEPIĆ (Roma Council of Montenegro)

It usually happens that Roma and Egyptian women, so to speak, do not have the say about how many children they will have in the future and whether they actually want children when they are already pregnant. I would connect that with the early marriages, where a girl enters the marriage at the age of fifteen, mostly before reaching the age of majority, becomes pregnant and thereby endangers her health condition, and later on, perhaps, the health of the child.

VESNA

When girlhood begins, when a girl begins puberty, so to speak, they would expel them from school. Why? Because the cult of innocence is very important.

ANDREA

You said you won’t get married. Would you like to finish school, so…?

ROMA WOMEN

I didn't go to school.

ANDREA

Why not?

ROMA WOMEN

My parents didn't allow me.

ANDREA

Why? What did they tell you?

ROMA WOMEN

They told me I am not allowed to go to school. They didn't send me to school so that I wouldn't find a boyfriend there.

ĐURĐA

You didn't go to school either?

ROMA WOMEN

None of us. That is why we want to send our children to school. My son is in the first grade, and soon the second son will be in the first grade as well.

ĐURĐA

Do your daughters attend school as well?

ROMA WOMEN

Yes. If I didn't finish school, I would like my children to finish it.

ANDREA

Threats to reproductive and sexual rights affect women's mental health, often leading to anxiety and depression. Denial of abortion rights is often intertwined with economic inequality, racial discrimination and gender-based violence. These factors can also contribute to the deterioration of general health.

ANDREA

What did you do when they didn't let you go to school, since you are so young? What have you been doing all this time?

ROMA WOMEN

Nothing.

ANDREA

Nothing, I was staying at home...

ROMA WOMEN

She was at home. She listened to everything her parents told her.

ĐURĐA

Did you clean the house, did you help with the housework?

ROMA WOMEN

I did.

ĐURĐA

Do they think you should get married now?

ROMA WOMEN

Because she knows she is an adult.

ĐURĐA

You think they are forcing her to get married?

ROMA WOMEN

Well, here and there, I don't know, she should talk about that, not me.

ROMA WOMEN

Now it's time for her to get married.

ROMA WOMEN

I don't want to get married, I don't need to.

ROMA WOMEN

You should get married.

ANDREA

You said you wouldn't like to have a husband or a boyfriend. What would you like now? If someone asks you to choose, what is it that you would like most of all?

ROMA WOMEN

She didn't plan on getting married, not yet.

ROMA WOMEN

To find a nice guy.

ROMA WOMEN

To have my own house and inner peace, to be alone, that's what I would like, nothing more.

ROMA WOMEN

She can't be alone.

ROMA WOMEN

Inner peace means everything to me.

ROMA WOMEN

You are lying.

ROMA WOMEN

I am not.

VESNA

To put it simply, a woman is a pillar and she must listen. It was the case before, and it is the same now. In principle, in our patriarchal societies, although it is masked by some modernity and education, we behave in the same way in the bottom line, so we say silently what is the role of a woman in the family, whether she will work, do housework, and what is the role of a man.

The situation is the same with the Roma, we cannot accuse them of doing something we have never done. It is not true, they are doing the same we used to do, which we cover up, but which was expressed, only then. Why did they not reach that level, which, let's say, the majority population reached? Because they were on the margins, uneducated, they were not given the opportunity, because they were constantly discriminated against, and because they had to protect their community within themselves, since there was no one else to protect them.

ĐURĐA

The last time I visited a gynecologist was two years ago, when I was about to give birth. The biggest issue is that I have no documents, which is why they refuse to examine me. I did not even register two children in the birth register because I gave birth at home since I was previously returned from the hospital due to lack of documentation. Even though I told them I was in pain they send me back home where I gave birth. My mother-in-law and daughter-in-law delivered the babies.

This is the experience of one of the residents of Riverside, which she shared with the Center for Roma Initiatives, in the survey done 2022.

A large number of Roma and Egyptian women live in the Riverside settlement in Berane for about two decades. They came as refugees, mostly from Kosovo. Many of them are stateless - without citizenship, documents, health insurance...

Many Roma and Egyptian women from Riverside do not know much about prevention, health services and the rights they have, despite their status.

ANDREA

About 10 percent of the respondents of the Center for Roma Initiatives have never visited a gynecologist, and another 10 percent have been examined a long time ago or do not remember exactly when. Many women had to pay extra for a gynecological examination, which is why they often don't even go to the examination.

Whenever I went for a gynecological examination, they would ask me to pay, so I stopped going. I constantly had a problem during childbirth because I don't have a birth certificate. I had a complication once when I gave birth because they left something inside so I went again to have it removed. The doctors told me that I couldn't be examined, I felt bad, it wasn’t not my fault I didn’t have documents.

Many women do not understand what the gynecologist is talking about. Some because of the language barrier, some because of poor education. This further complicates access to health care.

The fact that almost half of the respondents did not receive any type of prenatal care, which is common for pregnant women, in order to ensure their health and the health of the baby, is also worrying.

VESNA

Even then, the role of the wife is still being tested, because it happened that they returned her if they didn't like her, and the biggest reason was that she couldn't have children after a few years.

ANDREA

How did the family react? I assume you wanted children, so was your husband ok with the fact that you couldn't have children?

ROMA WOMEN

Well, to some extent.

ANDREA

What wasn't okay?

ROMA WOMEN

Well, they thought I was the problem. That was 15 years ago, but I didn't have that cyst then, it appeared six years ago, I didn't know it was the problem, but now everything is okay.

ĐURĐA

Do you want children? Do you hope to have them?

ROMA WOMEN

Well, I hope everything will be okay.

VESNA

As soon as she becomes a mother, her status changes for the better, of course. With each new child, she becomes more respected, because she gave birth to so many descendants and future members of their population to the family and community.

ĐURĐA

Reproductive rights in this country are not only a matter of women from the Roma and Egyptian population, but also of the general population. Montenegro has a large number of selective abortions. Women here become pregnant several times just to have a male child, they do not use modern contraception to a significantly greater extent than women of the Roma population.

REBEKA ČILOVIĆ (Activist for women's rights NGO "Polygon for Women's Excellence - Sofia")

It is said in our language that 'the man took the woman'. You see, she is probably not capable, in the patriarchal way of thinking, of going to the doctor and getting examined by herself. Rather, the man takes her to be examined. A man took his wife to the doctor, after the examination, where he was not present, the gender was determined and he asked what you were having. It is again a matter of language 'what were you having'? She answered him a little girl. This was your last examination, he replied.

ROMA WOMEN

I don't have any children, but as long as it is alive and well, I wouldn’t ask for more. There are women who give birth to a stillborn, that is a great sadness. Then you don't see that baby... Some people want ten children and they are not grateful for one or two then.

ROMA WOMEN

That is right...

ANDREA

In Montenegro, the life expectancy of Roma men and women is 20 years shorter than of the majority population. Male members of this community live only 55 years on average while women live even shorter due to their hard life.

ĐURĐA

In the countries of the European Union, Roma man and women live significantly shorter, but still longer than in Montenegro. Men live 64 years, women 70. The member states of the European Union are obliged to establish strategies and programs that guarantee access to services related to sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a special emphasis on marginalized groups. Montenegro does not yet have a national strategy for protecting and improving reproductive and sexual health.

ĐURĐA

How many daughters do you have?

NATASHA

Four.

ĐURĐA

What do you think their future will look? Their potential marriages?

NATASHA

First, I want them to finish school, to get a job. My father used to tell me to finish the school first, get a job, work, so that I do not depend financially on my husband. I teach my daughters the same. I don't want them to get married somewhere that doesn't suit either me or them to go to... It's better for them to finish their school, to have jobs, to find a good husbands for themselves. That's what I want the most.

ANDREA

From this perspective, do you regret not listening to your father?

NATASHA

Well, I do. I really regret not listening to my father. I realized he was right. I should have listened to him, finished school, got a job.

ANDREA

Her entire family is begging today, except for her daughter who suffers from a chronic disease and needs a lot of money for her treatment. Besides all that, how can she think about health, reproductive rights and whether the next pregnancy will endanger her life?

After the filming of this documentary was completed, Jovana had another pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Doctors barely managed to save her life.

Authors:

Andrea PERIŠIĆ

Đurđa RADULOVIĆ

Camera, sound, editing and organization:

Nemanja DABANOVIĆ

Stefan RADOVIĆ

Bojan RADOJEVIĆ

Special thanks to:

Jasminka MILOSEVIĆ

Zena DUBOVIĆ

Center for Roma Initiatives Nikšić (CRINK)

Maintenance of railway infrastructure Podgorica

Hotel CUE Podgorica