“Sworn Virgins” . The women who become men

[Kukul-Kan]

The other day I saw this program about the gender boundaries in the National Geographic channel and they mentioned these ‘sworn virgins” from Albania who take the place of men in society.

A sworn virgin is called such because she swears—takes a vow under the law of the Kanun—to become a man. From the day she takes this vow (which is sometimes at a very early age), she becomes a man: she dresses like one, acts like one, walks like one, works like one, talks like one, and her family and community treat her as one. She is referred to as he. He will never marry and will remain celibate all of his life. According to the Kanun, a woman is ethically permitted to become a man under certain conditions. If a woman chooses not to marry her pre-arranged husband, she may not marry anyone else. In order to remain unmarried, however, she must become a sworn virgin and dress and act as a man. The other condition under which a woman may become a sworn virgin is if her parents deem it so due to a lack of sons. In Albania, because only men may be heads of household, and because only men may inherit family wealth, if there are no sons, the wealth of the family (its home and land) risks being usurped by the family of a daughter's husband, or some other non-blood relative. Thus, to prevent this from happening, a family will sometimes designate a daughter to become a sworn virgin.

www.jolique.com/gender/crossing_boundaries.htm

[Indefens]

Fascinating. Any evidence of lesbianism among such women? I wonder how easily they make the adjustment. Seems like it would be more difficult than just "acting like a man".

[kynikos]

Great post Kukul-Kan, thanks

This is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for in my "Mediterranean Superstitions" post, in History & Prehistory.

I have already read one book on Albanian culture, Robert Carver's "Accursed Mountains", which some reviewers claim is biased, but it does give a fair desription of the "code of conduct" and SkanderBeg's writing down of it.

I don't remember anything about this "sworn virgin" thing though, I must get the book, is it still current practice?

With an alleged welcoming like "Cigarettes on the table, woman on the bed", like Carver describes, I didn't think virginity featured highly in Albania....
Now, now, musn't be mean....

[Kukul-Kan]

Yes I also found it fascinating. As for the book it’s available at amazon so I guess you could find it at any good library in the US. In the program I saw the author of that book went to Northern Albanian and talk with the woman in the picture and another one. The later didn’t want to become a sworn virgin but she had to because she had no brothers. The second one even though she had a brother who could take care of the family estates, wanted to become a man because according to her in that way she could have their own business and do whatever she pleased, but having sex. It was also mentioned that with thse slow westernization of Albania this “tradition” would eventually died out. Some Albanians they interviewed in the South didn’t even know these women still existed.


www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1859733352/qid=1079702986/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-3809619-3845713?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

P.s. they didn’t mention sexual preference was part of becoming a sworn virgin. In fact staying virgin was a big part of it and according to the women they interviewed they didn’t feel the need of having it.