Portraits of Albanian Women Who Have Lived Their Lives As Men

[ismnotwasm]

Stunning photographs; incredible story.

For her project Sworn Virgins of Albania, photographer Jill Peters visited to the mountain villages of northern Albania to capture portraits of “burneshas,” or females who have lived their lives as men for reasons related to their culture and society.

Many of the women assumed their male identities from an early age as a way to avoid the old codes that governed the tribal clans, which stated that women were the property of their husbands. Peters explains,

The freedom to vote, drive, conduct business, earn money, drink, smoke, swear, own a gun or wear pants was traditionally the exclusive province of men. Young girls were commonly forced into arranged marriages, often with much older men in distant villages. As an alternative, becoming a Sworn Virgin, or ‘burnesha” elevated a woman to the status of a man and granted her all the rights and privileges of the male population. In order to manifest the transition such a woman cut her hair, donned male clothing and sometimes even changed her name. Male gestures and swaggers were practiced until they became second nature. Most importantly of all, she took a vow of celibacy to remain chaste for life. She became a “he”. This practice continues today but as modernization inches toward the small villages nestled in the Alps, this archaic tradition is increasingly seen as obsolete. Only a few aging Sworn Virgins remain.

Thus, Peters wanted to capture this fading tradition before it disappeared forever. She also writes that she learned a great deal from her interactions with her subjects and their communities:

I learned that the Burrnesha are well respected within their communities. They possess an indescribable amount of strength and pride, and value their family honor above all else. Their absolute transition is wholly accepted, posited and taken without question by the people among whom they live. But most surprising, is they have very few regrets for the great deal they have sacrificed.

http://petapixel.com/2012/12/26/portraits-of-albanian-women-who-have-lived-their-lives-as-men/

[Squinch]

1. For many, transvestism may have been the natural option, but it is a shame for the

rest of them they were required to give up their sexuality in order to have any rights.

[DURHAM D]

2. Very interesting. Thanks for posting. nt

[riverwalker]

3. reminded me of this article

about women who fought as men in the American Civil War, many continued to live as men after the war.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285841/The-women-fought-men-Rare-Civil-War-pictures-female-soldiers-dressed-males-fight.html

[seabeyond]

4. i gotta get in and read the article. luv it. funny, can have male privilege as long as NO sex.

just everything about that says so fuckin much.

no sex, man. right.... pathetic, fuckin pathetic. the more i read on male domination, the more i see the weak, pathetic, embarrassing. i swear that is why there is an insistence on dominance.

[Gin]

5. Fascinating...thanks for posting

[libodem]

6. Interesting

[DreamGypsy]

7. "A woman is a sack made to endure."

From the Wikipedia article on Albanian sworn virgins:

A woman is a sack made to endure.
—Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit, 15th century AD

What would it be like to live in a culture/society where persons of your gender were considered this way?

The quote is from one of the written versions of the Kanun.

The Kanun is a set of traditional Albanian laws. The Kanun was primarily oral and only in the 20th century was it published in writing. There is only one Kanun since the ancient times commonly referred to the "Kanun of Leke" from which six later variations eventually evolved.

<snip>

The practice of the oral laws that Dukagjini codified in the Kanun may date back to the Bronze Age. Some authors have conjectured that the Kanun may derive from ancient Illyrian tribal laws. Other authors have suggested that the Kanun has retained elements from Indo-European prehistoric eras. Edith Durham, a British anthropologist[citation needed] suggested that the Kanun possibly dates back to the Bronze Age culture. Some other authors[who?] have suggested that there are many similarities between the Kanun and the Manusmṛti, the earliest work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism, which indicate a common origin.

Apparently some women were forced by circumstances to become burrnesha because the working male members of their family died, so a male substitute who would be allowed to work was needed to support the family. Here's a National Geographic video on the situation:

http://www.natgeoeducationvideo.com/film/466/sworn-virgins

[theHandpuppet]

8. Fascinating

Thanks for posting this and to everyone who posted additional links.