Albanian sworn virgins
Encyclopedia
Chastity
Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....
and wear male clothing in order to be viewed as men in the patriarchal
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
Northern Albanian society. The tradition exists to a smaller extent in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, and Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
.
Origins
The tradition of sworn virgins came from the Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit (The Code of Lekë Dukagjini, or simply the Kanun), a set of codes and laws developed by Lekë DukagjiniLekë Dukagjini
Lekë III Dukagjini was an Albanian prince who fought against the Ottoman Empire. A contemporary of Skanderbeg, Dukagjini is known for the Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit, a code of law instituted in northern Albania.- Biography :...
and used mostly in northern Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
and Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
from the 15th century until the 20th century. The Kanun is not a religious document – many groups follow it including Roman Catholic, Albanian Orthodox, and Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s.
The Kanun dictates that families must be patrilineal (meaning wealth is inherited through a family's men) and patrilocal (upon marriage, a woman moves into the household of her husband's family). Women are treated like property of the family. Under the Kanun women are given few rights. They cannot smoke, wear a watch, or vote in their local elections. They also cannot buy land, and there are many jobs they are not permitted to hold. There are even establishments that they cannot enter.
Rationale
There are many reasons why a woman would have wanted to take this vow. Some wanted to avoid an arranged marriage while others were forced by their fathers because there were no sons to look after their families. Some took the oath after being in bad marriages, and thus did so in an effort to swear off men. Taking the vow to become a man was a way to avoid an arranged marriage without dishonoring the groom’s family and creating a blood feudBlood Feud
"Blood Feud" is the twenty-second and final episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on July 11, 1991. In the episode, Mr. Burns falls ill and desperately needs a blood transfusion. Homer discovers Bart has Burns' rare blood type and urges...
. Breaking the vow was once punishable by death, but it is doubtful that this punishment is still carried out now. Many sworn virgin
Sworn virgin
A sworn virgin is a person who decides to live in the manner of the opposite sex while adamantly refusing ever to have sexual relations with another. The term itself can be misleading — "swearing" virginity can be a public or private act, and it does not even have to be a conscious decision...
s today still refuse to go back on their oath because their community would reject them for breaking the vows.
Becoming a man
While women can take the oath late in life, families in need of a male sibling to inherit the family's wealth have a girl take the vow at a very early age. The oath is usually taken in front of a town's elders, though some women take the oath privately signaling their choice by cutting their hair and wearing more masculine clothes. Once the vow is taken, the woman becomes a man in society's eyes, and she will be referred to as such. She will no longer be inhibited by the societal norms that dictate a woman's actions. For example, she may work in positions only a man could hold.Present day
In modern Albania the practice is dying out. The Socialist People's Republic of Albania did not encourage women to become sworn virgins. Women started gaining rights, coming closer to equaling men in social status. By the time the Soviet bloc fell from Albania, women had as many rights as men, especially in the central and southern regions. It is only in the northern region that many families still live within the traditional patriarchal way. Currently there are fewer than forty sworn virgins left in Albania, and a few in neighboring countries. Most of these are over fifty years old.External links
- Photographs by Johan Spanner, New York Times, 2008
- Photographs by Pepa Hristova, Deutschen Gesellschaft für Photographie, 2009
- BBC radio show on sworn virgins
- Sworn Virgins - National Geographic Film (approx. 4 min.)
- BBC From Our Own Correspondent 02/09