The Last Sworn Virgin Of Montenegro

An unusual medieval practice has stubbornly endured until the present day in remote villages in Montenegro (and a few other places in the Balkans). Traditionally, if the head of a household in this strongly patriarchal society died without a male heir, one of his daughters could choose to become a man.

She would dress like a man. She was permitted to smoke and mingle with men in the village cafe. She could even carry a weapon.

But these privileges came at a price. She had to become a “sworn virgin.”

Her vow of celibacy and her promise to look after her mother, any sisters, and the family property were lifetime commitments. In many cases, it was the only way by which a woman could inherit her family’s wealth.

At the end of May, the last sworn virgin of Montenegro was moved from her village near Savnik to a home for the elderly in the coastal town of Risan. Stana Cerovic was born in 1936, the youngest child in a family of five girls and two boys, both of whom died young.

While still a child, she promised her father she would never marry and would, instead, take care of the family. All her life, she socialized with men. She started smoking at the age of 5. She began working in her father’s fields at the age of 7. Her father taught her how to shoot.

Stana has never dressed as a woman. Traditional “women’s tasks” like laundry and cleaning were always done by her sisters. Stana has always been “the man of the family.”

All her life, Stana saw herself as privileged rather than deprived of her female identity and her life as a woman. In fact, the belief that it is an honor for a woman to assume the role of a man has been the foundation of the sworn-virgin custom over the centuries.

But now, at the age of 80, Stana is slowing down. She was forced to sell off most of her cows. The remaining one injured her a year ago.

Recently, a television feature about Stana touched the hearts of many people in Montenegro. Offers of help came from throughout the country. The local authorities arranged a place for her in the nursing home, turning back offers of financial help from the public.

“It is our duty to take care of Stana,” a Savnik social worker told Montenegrin television.

This archaic set of social rules originated in the mountain villages of Montenegro, southern Kosovo, and northern Albania in the 15th century. Some Dalmatian coast islands also had their sworn virgins. Such women cut their hair short, dressed as men, and often even changed their names. Many adopted male mannerisms and gestures so completely that they became second nature.

A few years back, U.S. photographer Jill Peters traveled to northern Albania and took a unique collection of portraits of sworn virgins in order to document this dying phenomenon.

PHOTO GALLERY: Albania's Sworn Virgins (2013)

In Albania, a "sworn virgin" --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_sworn_virgins is a biological female who has chosen to take on the social identity of a man for life. It's a tradition dating back hundreds of years that still exists in the Albanian Alps, as well as to a lesser extent in other parts of the Western Balkans. The practice developed from the Kanun, an archaic patriarchal set of laws that began to be used mostly in southern Kosovo and northern Albania in the 15th century. This ancient codex states that women are the property of their husbands, which strips them of some basic rights and freedoms, such as being able to conduct business, earn money, smoke, wear a watch, or even swear out loud. By taking an irrevocable oath to live as a sworn virgin ("burnesha" in Albanian) in front of village or tribal elders, a woman can be elevated to the status of a man, thereby becoming entitled to all the rights and privileges of the male population. Besides taking a vow of lifelong celibacy, Burnesha women usually don the trappings of masculinity to underline their transition from male to female -- cutting their hair, wearing male clothing, and sometimes even changing their names. They often adopt male mannerisms and gestures so thoroughly that they became second nature. There are various reasons why these women would turn their backs on their birth gender. Some young women took the decision to avoid being forced into an arranged marriage, often with a much older man. In other instances, it was the only way in which a woman could inherit her family's wealth. This was particularly important in a society where blood feuds have frequently resulted in the deaths of many men, which can leave families at risk of losing all their assets with no male heir to inherit them. Some have said they became sworn virgins simply because they felt more male than female. American photographer Jill Peters --> http://vimeo.com/70114157 has traveled to northern Albania to meet and photograph some of these women who have spent most of their lives living as men. As modernity slowly creeps into Albania's remote rural regions, the tradition of sworn virgins appears to be in terminal decline. It is estimated that there are only a few dozen aging burnesha left in the country. Consequently, Peters' photos may well provide a valuable record of a cultural phenomenon that could soon become a thing of the past. Her "Sworn Virgins Of Albania" is an ongoing project and she is also working on a documentary film --> http://vimeo.com/70114157 about this topic.

The custom survives in Albania but has already died out in Dalmatia and Bosnia and now it is in its final days in Montenegro.

The 2007 novel Sworn Virgin by Albanian novelist Elvira Dones traces the life of one such woman who, with the help of her sister, manages to reconnect with her female identity. Italian filmmaker Laura Bispuri made a movie based on that novel in 2015.

WATCH: The trailer for Sworn Virgin

Unlike the heroine of Dones’s novel, Stana seems to have no regrets. Her last wish, she says, is to be remembered in her family graveyard as her father’s only surviving son.