The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED011_RAI 400.13169 Albania. Rapsha. A 47-year-old Sworn Virgin from Rapsha in Hoti territory (Photo: Edith Durham, 16 May 1908). “Here we found one of the Albanian virgins who wear male attire. While we halted to water the horses she came up – a lean, wiry, active woman of forty-seven, clad in very ragged garments, breeches and coat. She was highly amused at being photographed, and the men chaffed her about her “beauty.” Had dressed as a boy, she said, ever since she was quite a child because she had wanted to, and her father had let her. Of matrimony she was very derisive – all her sisters were married, but she had known better… She treated me with the contempt she appeared to think all petticoats deserved – turned her back on me, and exchanged cigarettes with the men, with whom she was hail-fellow-well-met.” (Edith Durham, High Albania, 1909).