She pondered the oath to remain celibate for the rest of her life when she was seventeen. After telling her mother, her family informed the village. Afterwards, there was no going back.

“I never forced myself to become a man. My path in life gave me the presence of a man and the strength of a man. There was no other way for me. Also at that time women in Albania were very submissive and only men were seen as strong,” Diana Rakipi explained.

From the ancient Albanian code of Kanun, becoming a sworn virgin is followed by a scarce few in the remote mountainous areas of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.

After taking her oath, Diana became the head of the family and could do things which are the preserve of men. She can attend village meetings, go to the market alone, and even carry a gun.

“This phenomenon is not about a woman changing her sex. It’s about her changing her gender role. You need to remember that in the past Albania was a patriarchal society, although it was also a society that allowed women to take on the role of a man,” Mirela Sula, Editor-in-chief of Psychology Magazine, said.

A professor at the University of Tirana, Albania’s capital, Aferdita Ohuzi disputes whether she is following the Kanun code correctly.

“She can only do it under two conditions: first, if there are only girls in the family, the parents have died, and there is no uncle or anyone close to them that can head the household. The second is if she finds herself in an arranged marriage and the man has some birth defect or handicap. It’s a difficult decision and once the decision’s been made, it’s a decision for life. She can’t undo it,” Professor Ohuzi, ethnologist at the University of Tirana, said.

Diana’s one of the youngest in the last generation of sworn virgins following a traditions that has existed for centuries.

“I’d do the same thing again – I have no regrets. In those days it was the right decision. But if I was seventeen years old today, and was living in this society, it would be different. The world has changed for women. Today a woman can become anything she wants,” she said

The tradition of sworn virgins was never that common in Albania, and the practice is slowly dying out. Today there are so many more opportunities for young women that most of them here have not even heard of the practice, let alone considered it an option.