The documentary, “Avowed Virgins” by the Albanian authoress Elvira Dones has finally been introduced into the American circuit. The Avowed Virgins of the North of Albania, which the documentary of Dones focuses on, appear to have drawn the attention of the foreign world, which, it seems had never heard of such a phenomenon before, says an article in the Albanian daily newspaper “Shekulli” of last Wednesday.
Dones produced this documentary within a record time. It has now been broadcast on Swiss Television and has been selected to compete at the Film Festival on Women scheduled to be held in Baltimore in October. The documentary can also be viewed via, “Dones Media,” centered in the United States which is managed by the wife and husband team of journalists, Elvira and Vasko Dones, in cooperation with Swiss Television.
Joshua Zumbrun one of the writers of the American daily, “The Washington Post,” dedicated a long article to the American authoress and her documentary in the 11 August edition of the newspaper. “Dones, who lives in Rockville had encountered an heiress of the ancient tradition of Northern Albania, according to which, the women avow eternal virginity in exchange for the right to live like men. The process is not surgical in any way, in these mountainous parts they have never heard of surgical intervention for a possible change of gender. Even better, these avowed virgins cropped their hair and dressed in broad and baggy trousers of the men of those parts and began living the lives of shepherds or truck drivers or even political leaders in some cases. And all around them, although they know that the avowed virgins are in fact women, they are treated like men,” writes Zumbrun, and referring to the interpretations of Dones, he provides local readership with a view of this phenomenon during the regime and isolation of Enver Hoxha too. The 47 year old authoress says to Shekulli that this custom existed since at least the 15th Century when the traditions of the region were first enshrined in a Code and ever since then the avowed virgins “came into being” due to urgent demand; if the head of a family died and the house had no other male heir, then only a woman-man could take over and run the family.
One of the characters asks, “Why do I live like a man?” This woman/man is called Lule Ivanaj, who looks about fifty years old, close cropped hair, big muscled arms and wearing a watch with a broad metallic strap on her wrist. “Because I really value my freedom. I think I was born before my time.” And yet this same virgin, when asked by Dones whether she would have found herself “restricted” in any way by marriage, replied, “Not at all, more suppressed than restricted..”
