One Woman's Decision

Although the choice to become a sworn virgin is often made by other family members for the reasons described above, sometimes a woman will become a sworn virgin because she feels more comfortable as a man. Antonia Young describes her encounter with a sworn virgin, named Lule:

Lule was the tenth child in a family of eleven. After seven daughters, her mother gave birth to twin boys, one of whom died shortly after. From all account Pjetar, the surviving twin, was thoroughly spoiled by the whole family, even smothered by his parents and seven older sisters. [. . .] Lule remembers only ever having behaved as a boy and spent her time as an equal with the boys in primary school. Her older sister Drane says 'we tried to dress Lule in skirts but she always refused. And we made such a fuss of Pjetar when he was little: he became incapable of doing anything for himself.'

At the age of nineteen, Lule decided to become a sworn virgin, even though she still had a brother who legally could inherit the family's wealth. Today, Lule runs a household of ten, including all of her brother's children. In an area where all women wear skirts and headscarves, Lule wears trousers and a wristwatch (typically male vestments). Her hair is short (women keep theirs long, under scarves). She runs a welding business and tends the family's land by performing all the cutting and planting necessary to feed their animals. (Women's work, by contrast, is within the home: cooking, cleaning, serving guests (but not sitting with them), sewing, washing, etc.) Lule's family refers to her as "he."

Opportunity is not without its responsibility, however, and one of the responsibilities of a man is to defend the family in the case of a bloodfeud. Women do not fight in bloodfeuds, nor are they potential targets. Thus, where no men exist in a given household, this duty falls to the sworn virgin. Were Lule's family to be engaged in a bloodfeud with another family, she would become a target for attack.

But for Lule, this is no doubt a small price to pay. Many of the basic rights women take for granted in other societies (the right to choose a husband and to speak freely, for example) are not available to Kanun women. So for Lule and for many other women and men uncomfortable in the roles of their biological sex, crossing gender boundaries offers something that many people don't realize: freedom.

Bibliography:

-Denny, Dallas. "Transgender in the United States: A brief discussion." SIECUS Report, 8, no.1 (1999): 8-13.
-Vesilind, Priit J. "Albanians: A People Undone." National Geographic, February 2000, 52-71.
-Young, Antonia. Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins. New York: Berg, 2000.