Sworn Virgins and Albanian Feminism

The Washington Post had a fascinating article over the weekend entitled The Sacrifices of Albania's 'Sworn Virgins'. It turns out that in the rural and mountainous regions of Albania, there developed a custom several hundred years ago by which women could assume all the rights of men, but in return had to sear to never marry, never have children, and dress and act like men for the rest of their lives.

Dones, who lives in Rockville, had just met an adherent of an ancient northern Albanian tradition in which women take an oath of lifelong virginity in exchange for the right to live as men. The process is not surgical -- in these mountains there is little knowledge that sex-change surgery is even possible. Rather, sworn virgins cut their hair and wear baggy men's clothes and take up manly livelihoods as shepherds or truck drivers or even political leaders. And those around them -- despite knowing the sworn virgins are women -- treat them as men.

The idea that a woman would need to forsake love and live as a man to control her own fate seems primitive to modern eyes. But perhaps, in the context of a once-upon-a-time culture, a culture before feminism, it can be seen as progressive. The existence of sworn virgins reveals a cultural belief, however inchoate, that a biological woman can do all the work of a man.

What was most interesting were the various reasons women would take this vow. Sometimes it was because the family lost a patriarch, and a female member of the family had to take one for the team. In other instances, it was clear, that some women were too individualistic to live in a society that referred to women as "a sack made to endure."

One virgin that Dones interviews in the documentary, Shkurtan Hasanpapaj, once served as the local secretary of the Communist Party, the top office in her region. She was in charge of all the men, and though they knew the reality of her anatomy, her authority was unquestioned.

Asked if she would have felt restricted in a marriage, the virgin Ivanaj responds, "Absolutely! More like squashed than restricted. . . . Even when there's love and harmony, only men have the right to decide. I want total equity or nothing."

I look forward to seeing the documentary when it eventually comes out, as it seems to be a fascinating topic. Otherwise I don't know quite what to think of it. Is it proto-feminism, or just a bizarre cultural anomaly developed in a patriarchal culture to allow for misfits and misfortune? It's clearly a great stride that they could make men with such a provincial view of women's role accept women as equals in work, labor, intellect etc. Now if they could just do it without making them sacrifice love, family and femininity etc.

More like this

FuturePundit points to a New Scientist piece on a new study profiling older virgins. Who is the 40-Year-Old Virgin and Where Did He/She Come From? Data from the National Survey of Family Growth: A total of 122 (13.9%) men aged 25-45 reported never having had sex, representing approximately 1.1…
Here's a delightful article from today's New York Times: The operation in the private clinic off the Champs-Elysees involved one semicircular cut, 10 dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900. But for the patient, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, the 30-…
The World's Fair is pleased to offer the following discussion about The Caveman Mystique: Pop-Darwinism and the Debates Over Sex, Violence, and Science (Routledge, 2007), with its author Martha McCaughey. McCaughey is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of Women's Studies at Appalachian State…
Operation Save America has begun. Some of the fundagelicals are hoping to get militant, and I don't mean in that same sense that some atheists are called "militant", which generally means "atheists who say something". No, they are organizing and training kids to get out there and fight spiritual…

I read and enjoyed the article too, but I felt the feminist undertones ("Now if they could just do it without making them sacrifice love, family and femininity etc." seems like an apt summary of the article's politics) were a little dated. It smacked of Baby Boom, 80s-career-woman-with-family feminism to me. Wouldn't it be great if we could all just live the lives that were best for us, regardless of gender or reproductive expectations?

I was also interested in how rape and homosexual sex might function in "sworn virgin" society. Is virginity defined in terms of whether a penis has been inserted into the woman's vagina? What counts as sex? It seems like it the stripping of power that occurs in forced sex would be highlighted in a system like this-- rape would reduce the sworn virgin back to her original gender role. Does this happen?

I think it's more "a bizarre cultural anomaly developed in a patriarchal culture to allow for misfits and misfortune" than "proto-feminism," as it is still based on essentialist definitions of gender and sex.

[...]rape would reduce the sworn virgin back to her original gender role. Does this happen?[...]

If the practice is as widely oveyed as the article makes it seem, it is likely that there is some sort of social penalty for men who would break it (i.e., attempt to treat one of these sworn virgins as women).

By valhar2000 (not verified) on 13 Aug 2007 #permalink

Not unique, interestingly -- the Marsh Arabs which Saddam Hussein tried so hard to wipe out traditionally had a very similar system for women who "had" to live like men, but they were not required to be sexually celibate, and apparently could marry either men OR women! Not only that, but apparently there was similar provision made for men who felt themselves to "be" women.

Read a little about it here:
http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2006/02/22-0939-6178.html

By Luna_the_cat (not verified) on 16 Aug 2007 #permalink