Home » joey

The Sworn Virgins

Submitted by Joey on July 16, 2008 - 2:07pm.
| | |

"At the time, it was better to be a man than to be a woman, because women were on the same level as animals" explains Pashe Keqi in a recent article in La Stampa about an old Albanian custom (original article on page 17 of La Stampa from June 29th, 2008). What Pashe means is the history of the "sworn virgins", woman who vowed to essentially become men. The tradition first started about 500 years ago, and today there are still 40 women living who went through their whole lives with all the rights and duties of a man.

In a country rife with conflicts and wars, families were often left without a male to fend for them. But since the women had no rights and thus could not take on the jobs needed to sustain a family, a man was needed as the head of family.

In such cases, an unmarried, virginal woman could be chosen to take on the role of the patriarch of the family. She would be allowed to bear arms, to work, and to move in the public sphere. In return, she would have to dress as a male and live as a male for her entire life. Though this did not go so far as to officially change the name or to have gender reassignment surgery, the women were regarded as and respected like men. In return, they had to renounce their gender and sexuality. Relationships and children were not an option.

My mother showed me this article a couple of weeks ago, because she was amazed with how much the women in the accompanying pictures looked like the men they had been living as. But what amazed me when I read the article was the double-standard inherent in the practice. Women are treated like animals, but as soon as they trade their skirt in for a pair of pants and cut off their hair, they not only look like men, but are capable of doing everything the men are doing. So, what, the power lies in the pants? Or isn't it rather that the women are inherently just as capable, and are denied their rights based on random misogyny? These women took charge, earned the money to feed the family, handled all of the family affairs and became active within the community. Some of them even went out and avenged the deaths of the males they had replaced. Yet, had they not vowed to 'become' males, they would have been denied all of this on the basis that they were female and thus weak/incapable/whatever.

I mean, I think it's awesome there was a way for women to take care of their families in times like that. It just seems so unnecessary to symbolically turn them into males, first.

[As I am writing this, there's a commercial on TV for Always - but not once during the ad are feminine hygiene products mentioned. The general gist of what was said was this: "sure, we know these aren't the happiest day of the month for you. we get that. but this is how our bodies work. it's just nature's way of telling us we're healthy and everything is as it should be. so take some time off. pamper yourself. take care of yourself." So, sure, pads floated through the picture, but they took on the shape of an umbrella, a bathtub, a soft bed. I'm in awe! This is possibly the coolest period-y commercial I've ever seen, and even marginally cooler than the Fun Facts About Menstruation that Always has been printing on the wrappers the pads come in.]

» Joey's blog | login or register to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

You make an excellent point,

Submitted by Jenny on July 16, 2008 - 5:33pm.

You make an excellent point, Joey. The first time I heard about this practice, I was particularly interested in the flexibility and gender bending, but the bigger issue is precisely what you put your finger on: the fact that this practice requires the women to renounce their femininity, sexuality, and relationships. I'm not a standpoint feminist (or cultural/difference feminist), but I do think this showcases the devaluation of what we might call "women's ways of knowing."

» login or register to post comments

IN the remote mountain

Submitted by feliduca on October 28, 2008 - 1:00pm.

IN the remote mountain villages of Albania, the women no longer want to be men. The ancient tradition of “sworn virgins” - women who take on the role of paterfamilias, forsaking love, marriage and children - is threatened by the corrosive influence of modern life.

Diana Rakipi, 53, a sworn virgin since the age of eight, is angered by the way capitalism and democracy have combined to destroy her way of life. Rakipi, who comes from the mountain village of Tropoja, near Albania’s border with Kosovo, said her parents had encouraged her to become a boy after the deaths of her three brothers.

As the oldest girl in a family of 12 children, she took on her role with relish.

“Women were badly regarded at that time,” she said. “We [sworn virgins] are totally free and can rule in the family.”

Rakipi joined the army for six years, where she trained women to fight but returned to the men’s barracks at night. Now tough-talking, with cocky, exaggerated male mannerisms, she works as a security guard.

She spoke with pride of her fighting skills and her role in charge of her wider family. But she lamented the changes that the death of Enver Hoxha, Albania’s fearsome Stalinist dictator, had brought in 1985.

“Nowadays women are in such a strong position, it’s better not to be a man,” she said. “Dictatorship was better. During the time of Hoxha, everyone was the same and had the same amount of bread. Now some have so much and some have nothing.”

The custom of the sworn virgin derives from the ancient traditional law of the Kanun of Lek Dukagjin, which said women belonged to their fathers until marriage, when they became the property of their husbands.

The tradition has allowed women wishing to avoid arranged marriages to renounce their femininity in exchange for equal status with men and the chance to control their own fate.

Taking an oath as a sworn virgin opens the door to the superior male world. Sworn virgins are responsible for the family wealth and property. They are allowed to carry weapons and their authority is unquestioned.

The gender change does not involve surgery, nor is it to be confused with homosexuality, which was punishable by impris-onment in Albania until 1995.

But the women cut their hair short and wear baggy men’s clothes. They walk like men and talk in a deeper voice.

Pashe Keqi, 77, from the mountain town of Kruje, took her leap into manhood when she was 11, after four brothers tried to flee abroad to escape a blood feud. As head of the family, she is now trying to end the feud.

Unlike Rakipi, Keqi was persecuted by the communist regime because of her brothers and languished for years in a labour camp. Yet even she regrets the passing of communism and the declining status of sworn virgins in capitalist society.

It is believed only 30 to 40 sworn virgins remain. As life becomes easier in Albania the flow of young people from the mountains to the cities is increasing, and modern life is slowly finding its way back there. For the younger generation the choice between being a woman and having the rights of a man is no longer so clear-cut.

The price has been high for the sworn virgins, who have been required to remain celibate and unmarried. But there is no turning back, even for younger virgins such as Rakipi.

“I have never regretted not being married or having children,” she said. “I work for my home and for my country, nothing else.”

_________________
Submited by : Libros Gratis

» login or register to post comments