Here's a scenario: imagine you live in a backward society where the male population keeps getting whittled away by blood feuds. What do you do when your family runs out of males? In the boondocks of Albania, among the European equivalent of hillbillies, the problem is solved by the eldest unmarried daughter becoming socially a man.
There is nothing transgender or lesbian about it, just a straightforward adoption of the status of the opposite sex as a practical solution to a legitimate problem. A "virgin", as such a woman is called, is as committed to the celibate life as any nun. She cuts her hair, adopts male dress, and enters the male world, negotiating on behalf of the family, and being consulted in village affairs with all the privileges and respect accorded any other man.
Tradition has it that the custom originated among the Kelmendi tribe in the province of Malcia, inspired by the legend of Nora of Kelmendi, the beautiful warrior chieftainess of the 17th century.
In the mid-1990s, a Reuters journalist interviewed one of these sworn virgins, 41-years-old Lula Ivanaj of Bajza. One of a family of 11 daughters and one son, she accepted her commission at the age of 15 at the request of her widowed mother, who considered the boy too weak to take on the job. This should give you some idea of the social system involved. On the death of her husband, the widow did not become the head of the household; that position devolved to the eldest son. It was one of those societies where a young boy would find himself receiving all the deference, and all the responsibilities, of the man of the house. Except this time a daughter was elected as the man of the house.
Lula said that, when she was young, matchmakers used to seek her as a potential wife for their clients, but she always ran away and hid. The journalist found that Lula, having spent years solely in male company, sat and gestured like a man. Whereas her sisters wore the xhubleta (pronounced 'joob-let-a'), the centuries old costume of the Albanian women, Lula was dressed in sweatshirt and trousers, and smoked like a chimney. For most of her adult life she had driven a tractor, but now worked as a welder, an occupation no non-virgin would touch.
She said she never discusses women's affairs with her sisters, nor did they expect her to. I find this rather sad - not just because she has never held a man or a baby in her arms, but because taking on Adam's curse does not remove Eve's. After all, she still has her monthly cycle. And she does not possess a man's physical strength. Tractor driving and welding may not be very arduous, but in the old days it must have been really tough.
Also, she has to face the male jungle without the protection provided by femininity. We tend to forget that, even in the most male chauvinist societies - especially in the most male chauvinist societies! - a woman's weakness is also her strength. A simple example is Our Lord's parable about the unjust judge who respected neither God nor man, but eventually granted a widow's case just to stop her from pestering him. A man in the same situation would probably have been sent packing. Because women are outside the male power structure, they can get away with things a man can't. But that involves retaining their femininity.
There's another matter. The world is changing rapidly, and this was a quarter of a century ago. On the other hand, Lula became a sworn virgin about 1970, in the middle of the Communist tyranny, which was supposed to have eradicated all those ancient traditions. But it appears some traditions die hard.
Reference: Steve Pagini, 'The virgins of Albania'. This article was presumably syndicated widely, but I accessed it from the Harvey World Travel Magazine 5 (1997), page 34.
There is also a book written on the subject: Women Who Become Men by Antonia Young (2001)
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