Sworn Virgin In 2008, the BBC interviewed 88-year-old Qamile Stema of Albania, shown here, one of the last of the sworn virgins. She had accepted the male role when her father died, leaving no male heirs, and she discovered that she enjoyed it. She told the BBC, reportedly while smiling broadly, that she had always been respected as a man, even when people realized from her high-pitched voice that she was a woman. Stema listed the privileges she enjoyed that were denied to other women: She could work, smoke, pray with the men at the mosque, and carry a weapon. Stema concluded, “I’ve had a good life.”
Luis Dafos/Alamy