{"id":26675,"date":"2023-12-02T04:48:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T04:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harvestmoonnews.com\/?p=26675"},"modified":"2023-12-02T04:48:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T04:48:53","slug":"im-one-of-europes-last-sworn-virgins-it-doesnt-stop-men-trying-to-marry-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harvestmoonnews.com\/world-news\/im-one-of-europes-last-sworn-virgins-it-doesnt-stop-men-trying-to-marry-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Im one of Europes last sworn virgins – it doesnt stop men trying to marry me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Burrnesha Duni\u00a0was demanding \u00a3200 to speak to us. Having travelled to Lepusha, a tiny outpost high in the mountains of northern Albania, she knew the Express team was out on a limb. \u201cYou can just go back,\u201d Duni, dressed in a grey tracksuit and walking boots, told us with a flick of the hands. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just that she lived at the end of a rubble path it had taken a 4×4 three attempts to scale, Duni knows how unique her story is. We wanted to speak to her because she is the last of a kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 35 years ago Duni decided to follow an ancient Balkan tradition and become a sworn virgin, or \u2018Burrnesha\u2019 as Albanians say. This meant, as well as a vow of celibacy, she committed to “live as a man”.<\/p>\n

Duni, now 58, embraced the role, cutting her hair short and wearing men’s clothes. Characterising herself as tough and strong, as her approach to negotiations suggests, she spends her days in a mountain chalet with only a vicious-looking Alsatian for company.<\/p>\n

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A keen football fan, the sworn virgin loves watching the Italian national team, so much so that she once kept her nephew locked out of the house for two hours after an argument sparked by his loyalty to the England side.<\/p>\n

Being a Burrnesha also allowed her, in the past, to adopt the role of breadwinner and head of the household, which were the main reasons for her taking the vow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my father passed away my brother and sister were young,\u201d she explained. \u201cAt that time a girl or a woman was always someone who is serving. So I had two options; to serve to the family of a husband or to [become a sworn virgin and] serve my own family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that it was an easy time for Duni to support her siblings. Albania was in the last throws of communism which meant the sworn virgin spent days toiling on the collectivist farm for little reward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even Duni will concede, by the standards of the rural mountain town, her vow of chastity, aged 23, came rather late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, prior to choosing to live as a man, she turned down 15 marriage proposals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of options,\u201d Duni continued. \u201cBut I wanted to be free and feel different. I had the opportunity because my father was very educated and open-minded [so I was able to remain unmarried]. I\u2019ve said to all my brothers and sisters \u2018don’t get married too quickly. Enjoy your life\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a sworn virgin was clearly to Duni\u2019s taste. Once her siblings were grown her mother introduced another two suitors keen to marry her and she rejected them both.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was despite not having any obligations and the difficult conditions of communism being a distant memory.<\/p>\n

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