Prevalence
The practice has died out in Dalmatia and Bosnia, but is still carried out in northern Albania and to a lesser extent Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.
The Socialist People's Republic of Albania did not encourage women to become sworn virgins. Women started gaining rights, coming closer to equaling men in social status. By the time the Soviet bloc fell from Albania, women had as many rights as men, especially in the central and southern regions. It is only in the northern region that many families still live within the traditional patriarchal way. Currently there are between forty and several hundred sworn virgins left in Albania, and a few in neighboring countries. Most are over fifty years old. It used to be believed that the sworn virgins had all but died out after 50 years of Communism in Albania, but recent research suggests that may not be the case, instead saying that the current increase in feuding following the collapse of the Communist regime could encourage a resurgence of the practice.
Read more about this topic: Albanian Sworn Virgins
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