When you travel to the most northern parts of Albania, nature surprises you with its beauties. Beautiful and harsh, but nonetheless alluring, just like the century-old tradition of the Albanian “Besa”.
Often times compared to the Swiss Alps, and in fact, Lepusha, which lays in the heart of the “Bjeshkëve të Namuna” (translated as Accursed Mountain) is now one of the main hotspots of tourism in Albania.
Foreigners, some of the most frequent visitors of the area, say that besides nature they’re also attracted by history and tradition and are quite surprised when they find out that they can still meet women who have chosen to take the vow of chastity in 2020, like Duna.
Standing at the front gate of one of the most famous guesthouses in the village, Gjystina, also known as Duna, welcomes everyone to spend a few days in the warm surroundings of her hometown.
Duna recalls that in the age of 23 she took a life-changing decision. That, of becoming a sworn virgin.
“I am the sworn virgin of this village. Since the age of 23, I dedicated my life to our house and family. Together with my mother, we raised my sisters and brother, with whom I live now. There’s always work to be done during the day,” Duna says, explaining that what matters the most to her is being free.
“It’s very important for me, because I feel good. I work when I want, I eat when I want, I take a walk when I want… Thanks to my brothers and sisters, and also my nephews,” Duna explains.
“My father was very sick, my mother was alone with six children and we were very poor, so I had to lend a hand to my mom”.
“This made me become my mother’s strong arm, and not leave her alone in raising her children”, says Kelmendi’s sworn virgin.
As Gjystina says “being a sworn virgin takes a lot of commitment” and is not just about not getting married.
Her choice was at first subject to prejudice by relatives and townspeople, but Duna never backed down from her decision as it made her “feel free”.
“When I was 23, they’d ask me: Why don’t you get married and have a family? But I would always tell them I am proud and always keep my head up and tell them that I am fine. Now, I am the same as when I was 23, although I have some health problems as I’ve come to the age of 55, and here where we live it has been quite difficult. I have no worried. Women should not live in fear, they should be free: if I did it, I did it, if I made a mistake, so be it, everybody makes mistakes. If you don’t make any mistakes you can’t move forward”, she says.
“I’ve been working as a guide for 15 years. I started off with foreign tourists, actually they laughed at me at first, saying why is she bring people in/ I didn’t have a problem with that, I respected them and then took their money. They enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it, too”, tells Duna.
Her freedom, the is message that Duna wants to convey to all women, who “should never underestimate their strength”.
“To be free, not to live in fear, at the end of the day women are smarter than men, although men might be physically stronger, women are more intelligent”, says Kelmendi’s sworn virgin.
“Feeling free in the soul and in choice is a beautiful feeling, that not everyone can achieve that. The quest to finding individual freedom is personal. But the satisfaction of feeling rewarded by the decisions that brought liberty is indelible”.
Therefore, despite forms or labels inherited by old customs and traditions, strong waves of freedom can be seen even here in Lepushe, at Duna’s guesthouse, or anywhere else where women take up daring decisions, although not very likeable for their time being where power and freedom should be equal between women and men.
