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Dress and Gender In some parts of Albania, particularly in the north, families follow a code of ethics called the Kanun. The Kanun is not a religious document (Kanun followers may be Christian, Muslim, etc.), but is sacred nonetheless. According to the Kanun, 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). Marriages are arranged—often at birth, if not before, or in early childhood. Once a woman is deemed eligible to marry, she moves out of her parents' home and into that of her husband. There she becomes part of (the property of) her husband's family. For Albania's Kanun followers, dress is an important gender marker. Like many societies throughout the world, here there are two genders—masculine and feminine, which are signified by dress. Men wear trousers, wristwatches and close-fitting caps; women wear skirts, aprons, headscarves, and in some more traditional households, veils. Thus, if a woman dresses like a man, she is a man. Her dress changes her gender. And in Albania, "women who become men" are called virgjinesha, or 'sworn virgins." Why Women Become Men 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. The Responsibilities of a Sworn Virgin Once the sworn virgin is of age to become the head of the household, he will assume the important responsibilities of that position, which include:
As a man, the sworn virgin becomes the family's representative in the community. Although some descriptions of sworn virgins refer to them as women who have had to sacrifice their gender, on the contrary, it is not a sacrifice at all, but rather an avenue of opportunity. It's an important position, and one treated with tremendous respect. As such, through dress and demeanor a woman achieves social mobility—mobility that would otherwise be completely denied her. In Albania, a woman living as a man is a socially acceptable, if not socially expedient, way of life. |
