Milena Ugren Koulas
LUCKY TRIMMER Tanz Performance serie # 20
- German Premiere -
A woman is a sack made to endure”
She Who Stays finds its inspiration in the phenomena of women who are forced to live as men. Albanian sworn virgins are women who take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to live as men in the patriarchal northern Albanian society. The practice exists, or has existed, in other parts of the Western Balkans, including Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Dalmatia and Bosnia.
The tradition of sworn virgins arose from the Kanun, a set of codes and laws primarily transmitted orally and later documented in writing by Lekë Dukagijini. It was mostly used in northern Albania and Kosovo from the 15th to the 20th century. The Kanun is not a religious document as many groups follow it including Roman Catholic, Albanian Orthodox and Muslims. According to the laws of Kanun, women are treated as property of the family and are stripped of many human rights. They are considered almost equal to an animal. The Kanun says: “ A woman is a sack made to endure”.