Unsung Hero: Magdalena

My name is Magdalena Simeonova. I am 28 years old and I have two children who are 9 and 5. I was born and raised in the Nadezhda neighborhood in the Bulgarian town of Sliven. We only moved out of the ghetto a year ago to settle in Sini Kamani. I got married when I was 14. Today, I am strongly opposed to people getting married so young, but the environment in the Nadezhda neighborhood influences your decisions. I had lovely parents who wanted me to continue with my education and I had good grades at school, but I was influenced by my environment. I met my husband and wanted to get married, but my parents were firmly against it. I insisted, and in the end, they stopped fighting it and we got married. My husband was 18 but I was only 14. Marrying young is the tradition in Nadezhda and the people themselves accept it as something normal. They do not see it as a problem and think that that’s how it should be. Once you are married, as a woman in Nadezhda you are expected to drop out of school. You are supposed to have children and look after your family. In our community, your husband and in-laws expect you to have children straight away. There’s no waiting. Doctors of the World France was running a project for women on how to prevent unplanned pregnancies and avoid sexually transmitted diseases. I took part and followed their 4-week training course. At the course I met Fanya Rameva, a lecturer and midwife. After I met her, I knew I wanted to go back to school and pursue higher...
Source: Doctors of the World News - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Uncategorised Source Type: news