I stumbled across a very interesting article earlier today. It’s about Albanian women who became men, not as transsexuals, but because the man of the house had died, leaving a mother alone with her daughters. Back in pre-communist times, Albania was a staunchly patriarchal society (and still is to an extent) and the lack of a male in the household meant that the door of the house was closed.
One such woman, Qamile, appointed herself as the man after her father died when she was a teenager. She wore, and still does today, traditional male clothing, cut her hair and socialised with the other men in the village. She was accepted by them as a fellow man and was even allowed to pray with them at the village mosque. It is certainly a very admiral step to take to help your family, but unfortunately, not all of these women enjoyed their new roles.
Albania is certainly a very interesting country with very old traditions many of which, such as blood feuds, continue to this very day in the more rural and undeveloped areas of the country. It’s certainly a very interesting article and it’s well worth learning a bit about this fascinating and little-known tradition.
BBC: Last of Albania’s ‘Sworn Virgins’
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on Oct 30th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Good catch. There is a good movie about this strange phenomenon, try to find it if you have the chance:
Virzdina by Srdjan Karanovic
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Thanks for the info about the film, Vikotr.
I’ll keep my eyes open for it.
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Hi! I read your post and was going to tell you to watch Virdzina, but I see someone already has! A must-see.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am
[...] File links to a BBC story on “Albanian women who became men, not as transsexuals, but because the man of the house had [...]
on Jun 7th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Thanks for the insights in your post into this cultural adaptation.
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
[...] via Albania’s Sworn Virgins – Balkan File. [...]
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