Those are the headlines on aljazeera but do stay with us the stream is coming up next. As the worlds best athletes prepare for the Winter Olympics the north and south koreans will march under unified flag heat on a joint womens hockey team will bring you the results here in the excitement of the seventeen day game of young chang twenty eight teams which are over on aljazeera. Hi im femi oke a and imo we could be the roma people are the largest Ethnic Minority Group in europe but they often experience hate and social exclusion however many roam artists especially women are using their work to fight sexism racism and discrimination today we speak with a few including the cofounder of a feminist Theatre Group to learn how the challenging stereotypes about their community now in the stream where live on aljazeera and you tube so be sure to leave your comments and your questions and we will do our best to get them into this. Something that i am activists marking with brown and i am in this from. Two thousand and five was the start of europes decade of inclusion it has been years since the Multi National initiative wrapped up its aim was to close the gap switching roma and the rest of society but from a community to continue to experience height as well as social and economic discrimination in response to roma activists are using the power of art to combat negative stereotypes about their lives and culture some of these artists like romania stamina and Theatre Company particularly hope to bust myths about the lives of roma women held both within and outside the community have a look at one of the groups performances. The. Oh oh. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh its. The with. So how are huge repair and other roma using that activists out tell their own stories i challenge negative narratives joining us to talk about this eventually spain behind the dragon isnt actually some playwright and the cofounder for many of the penn Theater Company nicoletta bit who is the president of the Democratic Federation of roma from romania as well as the cochair of the European Roma Institute for arts and culture she joins us from book arrest also in book orest that is an actress and the founder of the untold story speak to company and was the u. K. Elisa smith news editor of the travelers times and thats a website covering roma news and culture hello everybody good to have me here im just thinking when youre thinking up a piece of theater and youre thinking how does this help people understand the roma better where do you stop or what are you trying to do when we we created. Like an answers to all the. Way in which very stereotypical way in which our present in our you know the scars. So we want. Our border is so alive. We are we are we have regressed you know and we want to share our stories because theres a lot of a little stigma around trauma and. So we want to see other stories. Alina going back a few years ago there was a time when you and some friends got together and you did Performance Art uses kind of was that people use about roma people can you repeat some of those phrases so that we understand what were talking about here and then how do you turn that into Performance Art yes back then to seven and nine when there were no cultural. Show the bugger more people and they were being fired or herb demonized or a group of five i went on the streets with you axis and spoke about the there are three things i dont play with the jews. If you will bad im going to think this is a. Bonus that to you or even from our bill ergo balls that we know only new bring out of the deep need. So we try to go go on the street and look into the eyes of the people and say hey im a human just like you and you know what i didnt have the need to get where you are but if i would get the chance i will go through would be are we meant to come closer to the end we had i would think to bring our story then show how. You know when we are and how low oh beautiful all the senses im just thinking and you collect and lisa when you hearing that when you hear these these create insult how do you react because i thought you confessed i reckon you saw the puffing about here you need more time to think you said when you hear these insults when people say these was these phrases whats your reaction. And i think its a lack of education on the part of the dont be able. To show film that we looked at as trying negative stereotypes of the sections of what it means to be roma was recently wrote and produced a show called hachi and what this looked hard she in romany british from the language translated means hedgehog and it was because the lead character he was very much into the heart and he had that the seeds really had experience and it the story was actually based on my brothers true true Life Experience and it was him as a romany man as a romany gay man and as a romantic a man who was profoundly deaf and i think film and moving image in particular can be a very very powerful tool to be able to convey those stories that im told and that we do not get the hair of very often. I would say what i wanted to provide was with that was a snapshot for an outside of just a happening inside into this person slip reality this persons lived experience and as we know where were all so many things and so often are not roma we get to find by this one the one thing and that is simply being roma and one of the things that i see rome artists challenge in across europe and across the world is that theyre actually that challenging what is the step what is this rhetorical what it means to be roma within the within our own communities and actually within outside of. So picking up on what you mentioned there elise i want to bring in the perspective of someone online this is peter who tweeted most of this is criminal that you all are talking about begins with those stereotypes almost everyone has heard of the discriminatory stereotypes of romania Roma Community as he says in romania specifically he goes on to say the most negative is that you can Never Trust Anyone from a Roma Community that stereotype is mainstream and Popular Culture and then more particularly he says another ignorant stereotype is that roma women will seduce they will deceive and they will rob their non roma lovers this stereotype is also in Popular Culture michelet i can you talk to us about this particular part of that stereotype as it backs women. Yes of course i can and its i mean im trying to talk about this for the last twenty six years and i i just im sure that my romani women fellow artists will do more than i will succeed to change the minds of people more than i did but when i hear these. Its i have mixed emotions because in a way you realize that there are discourse about dramas there are caps didnt change since one thousand century so this is really said and in the same time i am after twenty six years of activities i have the impression that every day i have to take take it over and over again from the beginning and to explain everything but. The conclusion is that also side it is really systematically and systemically. Reproducing the same stereotypes for all the institutions and this is like you know very bad and you are talking about a population which is on the thirty three of europe since the fourteenth century and which was part of the formation of the initial states across europe but theyre not there were still foreigners alone lent you know nations in our own states so this is really very deep rooted. In the minds and systems for society and of course as well you know were going to be sorry if i can add to that exactly hoops that when i thought one thing nobody or very few know about the history of remark in the rumanian and. In labor but when we speak about. You know women now are they in your when youre. There or being rationed early marriage youre going to. Not think about the fact that only marriage is from the past when women were. Raped by their boy are by the owners so when we do not know about it very very dark in the rio labor of color. How can we knew the present so i mean im just going to slow you down a little bit because you put up a huge chunks of the roman history here. So im going to start with we really been let me start with let me start with your play here the great shame theres a little clip that you sent us and it talks about what youve been talking about but in a real life conversation have a look. You know the. One show no. Its a good one. But its not just. Because of. The movement that was going on. I. Believe it was that we were you know it was not the. Only one. Its alina obviously im watching a play here but im being educated at the same time i. Usually im sure blue usual thing to write that. So why do audience its not only for role modeling and is for people across the country isnt coming from different backgrounds because first of all were all humans so its just that because of this room consumation a stereotype we dont get to see each other no we said this is true and so once people come to see can flee i think this some people thats the only year. When they are there are five things going for four when they see a play when they feel a film of a most people. Made through our vision because thats their problem that is always new things are points of view of the so we. Think i will say if we did our make this bridge the think people so we come maybe at the at the we build the bridge and say hey i respect your differences and i can i will emphasize with your thing thats the beauty of art were going to. Read billion more or dont we mean. I dont know were writing in brochures about me nations they want to see. People like me. When we think about early marriages or the history you know mine i come from work for additional ma family i refuse any marriage goals first me so when its about to be false well most people that are community then he doesnt think should be thats among them there are a lot of digital roma. No letter its also ok i mean its about hate i think its when you when you think about image i mean the representation of hate its so deep hate and here its not only hate its fewer and theres not racism and discrimination so if youre getting too close to how many women because there are many women exactly because ronnie women are dangerous and of course you know all the you know the history of the world and. The human being the hate and the fear representation of fear and hate. Of our known what trudeau images of women in general and the witches for example in in time of the. Station so in case of romanies the saying the peak representation and the most to. Terror type and charge to representation of the future against roma is for the images upon you women and thats what i mean my colleagues are trying to educate the public that. We are not told the same and that thats a mistake and even sure of ourselves and in a letter theres someone new here who may agree with you and shes fighting back in her own way through song and music this is real night she sent us a video comment on how shes trying to change the narrative reclaim it for herself have a listen. Recently ive been involved in developing a production called romani with the direct to govern and in them and one of our main objectives when developing this production was about reclaiming our narrative and rebranding our image as a method of self empowerment for us and for the Wider Community something i wish people knew about us as a community was that actually were just like you while we have a massive importance placed on family and a respect for our elders and on our community as a whole theres so much stigma surrounding us i feel like the Human Element the fact that we are humans just like you thats lost and thats why i wish people. The law you heard what she said about what she wants people to take away from her work what is it that you want people to take away from doors and whats been the feedback so far yes so it was it was or am i call it from the show from very. Well we when we speak about iranian women and how they are represented in society in the public the scars there are a lot of stereotypes we have created a show that is called the guys will deal dont owe it all of these stereotypes about romania we went out and they are seen as a mysterious exotic submissive this is and the biggest cliche but. Very often is actually pretty excited zation that the roman men are doing great guarding that so we do a lot of criticize and chatter showing guys with their dog about. These about all these key ship. So this is these are the labels that want to. We are are we are online we are we are. We yes there are some areas that you are going into that if you had them talk about them on a discussion show if we talked about the face to face they would be incredibly to boom that show in particular has issues of l. T. P. Can cue issues. Issues how the audience how is the roma audience reacting. Well we have very different reactions. First of all because its a very provocative show it speaks about excite you. And it says the story of floral money lives being one woman so it was i think it was for the first time in all men you know when we opened the discussion about iran my so of course there was a lot of money men especially from the Roma Community. Acted in a very negative way because they say well we we do way to the n. T. Racist message if we if we include issues about energy because youre on our we dont have so many this is not our issue of their own hamilton meant and we tried to tell them well we have an intersection of perspectives these people are existing in our communities and they face hamas will be at racism or sixtys if we speak about trance or lesbian the wrong mind. And of course we will we receive the. Negative reaction from the conservative people but this is our role to change perspectives and create the progressive the scorers. Percent that in the same time we had a lot of. The old unions that came to us and for the first time they failed to represent its representational so important as i see you nodding their smile or speaking i want to show everybody this the travelers times your news editor at the traverse times when i actually went onto your twitter feed i found this story no exhibition of photos from roma gangsters in glasgow to help show the whole picture and then. Will you for us never give up the fight for roma quality the writer. These are images that we dont wrestle see let me say Mainstream Media how do you combat that lisa. Well this is why childless times exist is to try and combat the huge amount of negative stereotyping that happens in Mainstream Media and im told starry in the u. K. Very similar to alan his point in romania is that we have an untold history of deportations slavery execution and and children displaced not being taken away from romany families on the basis that they are just roma and i really liked a lot of point when she started you know the power of and i think thats the message that were old trying to thank you if the power of humor humanitarian thing people and. What i want how we can use the power of violence in my country a trip interaction we have we made a short film actually a chapter times called august show on the road on the road that highlighted the first persecution and history and how now we are people and we have situating our south african powered individuals you know who are telling our own narratives and increasingly creating a right in our own car. I hear you there but i want to win i want to win one other perspective because were talking about are to change the narrative but people online are reminding us of course there is not just one narrative so this is the lonnie on twitter who says although some roma groups are enthusiastic about creating a shared identity discourse of the roma has pointed out the difficulty in a non territorial traditionally group seeing itself as united another person picks up on that theme and jonathan he tweets and he says were not a single group of nuts and he wants people to know were not a single group with a single culture across the continent it would be like talking about the worldwide African Community roma how many cultures languages religions and customs and these make us richer as a people. Can you give us that perspective keeping in mind that yes people are trying to represent to their community but it is not then just one monolithic community in the difficulty in the. Its not only one man Article Community and this is driven by the local Stories National histories and we have been oppressed by the majority religions and majority history. And all the artists are trying to and they are succeeding to the present the diversity. Of the stories we were. Holding wish for us for the centuries but in the same time this have taught me that its a sense of belonging to a transnational. So its like we are so diverse and we are not only diverse in terms of geographies and cultures we are so diverse in search of Sexual Orientation or. Already journo or our. Other they vary state which are social class including so but i have to admit that being twenty six years of activists on International Levels theres a sense of belonging when you come together theres a sense that youre. Especially for artists and activist and people its a sense i get you who really have a common fight so you have a common fight alina when you want to address both. The great thing the playing about. Laboring is that at one point a character you know what one might bend what id identified with the meaning of hate i had i identify with the feeling of. Because its in the we are so so different and unique in our own way when we say you know who are sometimes when i connect to highland by thats by the other women by when you are discriminated on on on this. Basis of being run by markham you know. This feeling that. Oh i will reject because i know on mine what is that like to guess i want to share this quote from crimean over and says if the Mainstream Media remains closed off to rome or prospectus itis right here on my laptop the roma should find alternatives create alliances with independent journalists and use the Digital Space to promote their views and their work which is what i hear that you are doing what you have to act i will end with this comment from someone who describes herself as an american roma woman as shes watching us live on you tube and she says i hope that we can also work and support each other transnationally because i related to what alina was saying earlier and what all the panelists are saying even though im in the us its nothing so pointless talking about you have to see it as well let me end with a little bit of the roman army trailer have a look at this. How. It. Was a girl can see it in berlin thank you the height and the collateral and lease of the in part of a conversation is conversation is a big wad it continues online receive their hash tag a. J. St thanks for watching. Good news im scared. Enough been fined for what is right on the shores of padded dice progress for some can create some living hell for others challenging his government and big business who want to risk his life to see the community he cherishes it is not to be that someone can do stand up. Thats what. The opposition a witness documentary at this time on out is enough. To read so that i could report every man. Returns to activism with a new mission. To educate dissidents within the technological. Race to get security the patients in their field in the capital. To the rebel areas at this time on al jazeera. In the worst mass shooting in United States in modern times the gunman only forty seven guns and had twenty three of those firearms with him at the time of the shooting. United states of america has eighty. Excessive attraction and love for guns in a way that other countries just dont have and thats why she helped put together an exhibit at one church to help raise awareness to gun violence through art and in this piece tissues on each piece of tissue a name and age of someone killed by gun violence in the area. The arctic zip it is called loving arms of course its a play on words arms being what we used to hug or pray somebody but also arms being weapons as well the message here in this world needs more love and less violence. The mounting human cost of war nearly two hundred syrians are killed in just three days as the government and its russian backus and crease their attacks from the air. And