DesertFox
08-11-2007, 08:11 PM
When the Albanian journalist and author Elvira Dones was traveling in the mountains of northern Albania, she asked for directions from someone she thought was a man walking his mule through a village, rifle on shoulder.
After the exchange, her guide whispered, "That is one of them."
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/08/10/PH2007081002298.jpg
When "sworn virgin" Shkurtan Hasanpapaj was an official with the Communist Party, the men she supervised did not question her authority. Elvira Dones's documentary explains why some women took an oath to live as men.
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.
More (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/10/AR2007081002158.html)
After the exchange, her guide whispered, "That is one of them."
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/08/10/PH2007081002298.jpg
When "sworn virgin" Shkurtan Hasanpapaj was an official with the Communist Party, the men she supervised did not question her authority. Elvira Dones's documentary explains why some women took an oath to live as men.
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.
More (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/10/AR2007081002158.html)