Qamile Stema is a Burnesha, one of the last "Sworn Virgins" of Albania

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Qamile Stema is a Burnesha, one of the last "Sworn Virgins" of Albania. The strongly atavic and patriarchal Albanian rural world still pays attention to the ancient laws of the "Kanun", an ancestral code which rules from the feared Blood Feuds to the possibilty of pushing a girl in whose family there are no males left, the young Qamile, to swear a vow of chastity which to the eyes of the society, will transform her in a man for the rest of her life. Since then, she has always dressed, worked and lived as one more man in the community and become the head of her family. After the death of her sisters, Qamile always lived alone. She´s the last Burnesha in Baraganesh, a remote village in the mountains north of Kruja.

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Photo credit: © Luis Dafos / Alamy / Afripics
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