okay first of all we're in europe and a member of the european union, this IS "the degenerate west." second of all, these are roma people and their cultural practices are not the norm for the entire country. the norm, funnily enough, is going to clubs and getting fucked by strangers (which is fine).

roma people in bulgaria (and the balkan peninsula as a whole) tend to be very poor and are discriminated against routinely. it is extremely low of foreign news organisations to come and present this as normal for the entire country, given that bulgarian roma have many deep-running issues that deserve to be explored in an honest way. this is an oppressed minority. slurs against them are common go-to insults used even by otherwise "progressive" people. it sounds terrible, but i mean it when i say that a bride market is actually a lesser issue than the systemic repression they all face. it is literally that bad.