Burnesha: Albanian women-men
In Albania, there is still a tradition of “remaking” women into men – there are several thousand of them. They take men's names, wear men's clothes, behave like men. To this they are pushed by Kanun - a set of archaic, tribal laws.
Despite the fact that a third of Albanians are Christians (half of whom are Catholic, the other half are Orthodox), the medieval code of laws applies to them. There is nothing surprising in this Eve - almost all mountain, closed societies have such laws for the self-preservation of the nation - from the adats in Chechnya to the bilus in the Basque Country. Another thing is that in Albania Kanun continues to determine the life of the whole society, not only its archaic strata.
One of the main components of the Eve is blood feud. Here is a description of everyday life in Albania on Eve in the 1990s, given by the newspaper Die Welt: “More than half of the population of the northern mountainous territories of Albania do not leave their homes. They fear blood feud. The fact is that if a person from a family is guilty, the punishment extends to his relatives.”
In Albania, a defamed honour can only be paid for with blood, and blood spilled again with blood. After recent changes, this law has come into force again, and the less state control and administration in a given territory, the more force vendetta laws gain.
Blood feud plans have been hatching for years. In the village of Bleran, near the border with Montenegro, Gerg Capaclia was killed. 13 years before his death, he pushed a representative of the Häk family on the street, and such an insult, according to the Albanian code of honor, is washed away only with blood. Capaklia would probably have been killed back then, but the iron arms of dictator Enver Hoxha protected Albanians from tradition. Gergi went to Greece, and when he returned, the two brothers of a blood-stained member of the Huck family shot him in the street.
Gerga's younger brother, Pepin, who was with him, voiced and threw a stone at the killers, who, without thinking twice, shot him. Now it's the Huck family's turn. One of Gergie's five brothers did shoot one of Huck, but a police officer was shot in the process as he tried to stop the violence. Thus, the Capaclia family made two blood enemies at once: Huck was added to the family of the murdered policeman.
The only way to stay alive for a person sentenced to death is to sit quietly at home. According to the Albanian code of Kanun, a blood enemy cannot be killed in his home, so for a family like Kapaklia, the house remains the only salvation. Only about 10,000 people in Albania are locked up in this way.
Blood revenge can only be stopped by the head of the family clan, who must, if he intends to establish peace, go voluntarily to the hostile clan and offer his blood in exchange for peace and tranquility of his family. If the other side agrees, they either kill the courageous champion of peace, or give their word – “the devil”, stipulating a period during which they will not touch the members of the clan that requested peace until the final decision is made. Desa signifies the beginning of a possible peace, which in turn signifies forgiveness, often measured in the amount of personal property and livestock transferred.
It is also possible to appeal to a recognized authority. Such is Ndrek Pietri, who spent many years in correctional camps. After the change, he became head of the Union of Political Prisoners and became famous for his ability to stop hatred and blood feuds. Pietri does not call for abandoning the vendetta altogether, believing that it introduces Albanians to the real laws of their ancestors, the real essence of which is now forgotten and distorted.
Previously, Pietri says, the guilty family hid in the mountains and waited for the decision of the council of elders. Elders usually punished only the murderers and the immediate perpetrators and did not touch the whole family. This is the tradition Pietri is going to restore.
Today, of course, Albania to some extent Europeanized, but life on the eve remained. In particular, according to paragraph 88, Kanun recognizes a son as an heir, not a daughter, if there are no sons-heirs in the family. A daughter can only become a "burnesha," that is, a "woman-man": to take an oath to remain chaste and not to marry, and this oath must not be broken for the rest of her life. Only in this way can a woman become the head of the family and the official heir. Burnes are well received within the community, they are even admired for their willpower. Bournesha dress like men, behave like men and have equal rights with men – that’s just can not have children.
And given the fact that hundreds or even thousands of families of Albanians are deprived of sons-heirs because of their place of blood, Burnesha is a very common phenomenon. The exact number of them in Albania is not known, but usually counts in the thousands – at least 3-5 thousand.
Source: Interpreter. rue