Albanian Sworn Virgins

Albanian sworn virgins (Albanian: burrnesha or virgjinesha) are women who take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to live as men in the patriarchal northern Albanian society. To a lesser extent, the practice exists, or has existed, in other parts of the western Balkans, including Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Dalmatia and Bosnia.

Other terms for the sworn virgin include vajzë e betuar (most common today, and used in situations in which the parents make the decision when the girl is a baby or child), mashkull (present-day, used around Shkodra), virgjineshë, virgjereshë, verginesa, virgjin, vergjinesha, Albanian virgin, avowed virgin, muskobani, muskobanj, ostajnica (Serbian: means man-woman, manlike, she who stays), tombelija, basa, harambasa (Montenegrin), tobelija (Bosnian: bound by a vow), zavjetovana djevojka (Croatian), sadik (Stahl, Turk Moslem: honest, just).

Read more about Albanian Sworn Virgins:  Origins, Overview, Motivations, Prevalence

Famous quotes containing the words sworn and/or virgins:

    I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    He shall be washed as white as snow,
    By all the martyr’d virgins kist,
    While the True Church remains below
    Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)