Elvira Dones, author: “Knowing the sworn virgins became an obsession” | Culture | EUROtoday

Sworn virgin It is the primary, and for the second the one one, of the ten books of Elvira Dones (Durës, Albania, 64 years outdated) that has been translated into Spanish. A dream fulfilled for the journalist and author who dominates Spanish, though he prefers to talk in English in a central cafeteria in Madrid. He has come from Switzerland, the place he lives, invited by Errata Naturae publishing home to advertise the launch in Spain of the novel he initially revealed in Italian in 2007 and whose historical past led to the cinema in 2015.

Hana is an invented however very actual character, based mostly on an historical Balkan custom by which girls made an oath of celibacy to stay as males the remainder of their life. “They gained freedom socially, but lost everything else,” summarizes the creator, who knew this apply when she was an adolescent and investigated her obsessively for years to form her protagonist. It was after the publication that he knew a few of these sworn virgins personally which are nonetheless alive within the north of his nation. It was not simple for them to belief her to get the documentary forward, he needed to show that he was trusting taking some extra little sucking. “But I found my Hana.”

Ask. He has not lived in Albania for many years, how was his departure from the nation?

Answer. I abandoned when Albania was nonetheless a communist dictatorship. He was one of many few individuals who approved to journey overseas as a result of he spoke totally different languages ​​and labored for state tv, which was the one chain. They despatched me to purchase motion pictures and documentaries. I went to Denmark, I met a Swiss political journalist and fell in love. My first marriage was in ruins, however I had a son, so I returned to Albania. After a yr and a half, I left. They despatched me to Milan and abandoned. I by no means returned. It was an amazing scandal and the regime took it very dangerous as a result of, because it was well-known as a result of it got here out on tv, they might not cover it from folks. It was very tough. I believed foolishly that they’d not avenge my son, that they’d give it to me, however they didn’t. They informed me that, if I needed to see him, he returned and made a public assertion saying that he had betrayed the reason for socialism. I knew that, if I did, I might go on to jail. Then the regime fell and recovered my son. I lived in Switzerland for 16 years, then 12 within the United States, seven in Washington and 5 in San Francisco. Then we returned to Switzerland. I’ve had a really adventurous life.

P. Spanish speaks, writes in Italian … what number of languages ​​dominates?

R. The Albanian, Italian, English, French, Spanish, some German, and I’m finding out Danish proper now. I choose to learn the authors within the authentic language. In Spanish Leo to Javier Marías, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Eduardo Mendoza …

P. Have you learn your ebook in Spanish?

R. Not but, however I’ll. I’m curious to see how it’s.

P. The ebook is a couple of Albanian custom for which girls renounced their sexuality and took the function of males without end. How did he find out about this apply?

R. When he was 16 he lived in Tirana, the capital. Albania was a communist dictatorship and we did not have a lot details about what was taking place in the remainder of the nation. But some neighbors of my dad and mom had been from the north and went to a relative’s marriage ceremony; When they returned, they got here to have espresso dwelling and informed how the three -day ceremony was, the everyday Balkan insanity. The man had taken three pictures and, between the bride and the boyfriend, there was a really elegant man, very good-looking. I requested who he was and mentioned: “She is my cousin. But now she is a man, she is a virgin sworn.” I used to be a really curious woman and needed to know what it meant. Was it a girl or a person? He replied that it was an extended story and altered the topic.

P. What was that story?

R. Of loneliness. The oath of virginity is an everlasting dedication, they can not return, whether or not they have determined them as their dad and mom. They grew to become sworn virgins after they had been 13, 14 or 15 years. At that age you do not know something about love or intercourse, and they’ll not uncover it. They mortified their physique as a result of solely then had been they allowed to be on the planet of males, which signifies that they received socially – throughout centuries in Albania, girls couldn’t abandon their village with out accompanying a person, for instance – however misplaced every thing else. And that led me to write down the ebook about them, about freedom and lack of it.

I spent 5 years investigating as a result of I needed the novel to be devoted to actuality, not mere fantasy ”

P. Years handed till he wrote it.

R. That story stayed with me for a very long time. When I went to University I had fellow north and requested them in the event that they knew a few of these girls. It grew to become an obsession. Then I left Albania, I went to work at Switzerland and wrote different books. But I stored documented to do justice to its historical past. And a yr and a half earlier than I began writing the ebook, I used to be within the northern a part of Albania recording a documentary for Switzerland public tv and requested the fixer Albanese that if he noticed a sworn virgin, informed me. One day we misplaced ourselves as a result of he snowed intensely and requested indications to a person touring in mule along with his rifle. It was certainly one of them. I knew I needed to do it, and I spent 5 years investigating as a result of I needed the novel to be devoted to actuality, not mere fantasy.

P. Did you interview any of those girls?

R. Yes, however after writing the ebook. The novelist in me had invented Hana – the primary character – after an extended investigation; But I wrote a fiction. The journalist that I’m nonetheless curious, was a bit unhappy as a result of he had not met them or spoken with them in individual. I lived within the United States at the moment and determined to go north of Albania to fulfill them. And I succeeded. I managed to persuade them to belief me as a result of they didn’t need to give an interview in entrance of a digital camera. It took me time to open their doorways and, after they did, I felt very proud of the fiction I had written within the ebook as a result of I used to be very near the actual world.

P. In the tip he met them and recorded the film.

R. I made a documentary. The final of the six girls I interviewed, Sanie, was the youngest, at the moment was 51 years outdated, and had a sister within the United States, the place I dreamed of going. She determined to grow to be a sworn virgin – she was not imposed by her father – as a result of she needed to play soccer with the kids of the city and couldn’t do it as a woman. Then he fell in love with a boy, however he by no means informed anybody. I requested him if he regretted … I had discovered the Hana who had invented me. After 12 years we’re nonetheless involved.

P. Did he remorse it?

R. Well sure. Although I needed, I could not be a girl in Albania. Not that something occurred to him, as a result of the regime and the foundations had modified. The girls had been a lot freer in 2007. But it will have been a dishonor for his or her household and for all of the neighbors who revered her as a person. It would have been the folks’s store and the whole area. So he needed to place distance between that world and her. He has succeeded. He lives along with his sister within the US.

P. What did he inform you about this technique of being a girl once more?

R. He needed to place a skirt and did it when he went to the United States. He additionally let his hair develop. A few years in the past I requested him if there was any man in his life, or somebody with whom he flirts. He replied: “It’s too late for that. But at least I wanted to feel free.” A dialog that made us chortle like loopy was when he informed me that intercourse is overvalued. I requested him why he mentioned it if he had by no means tried it. And he replied: “Yes, but you forget that for more than 30 years I lived and worked as a man. And as they considered me one of them, they talked about sex with their wives: that it was two minutes, without preliminary, without playing or anything. So I have not lost much.” I informed her that intercourse is one thing else, however for her that was already in a contemporary world that was not yours.

P. Does this apply proceed?

R. No. Albania is a free nation and males have misplaced their management over girls. I don’t converse of equality as a result of the scenario in Tirana, the capital, with 1,000,000 inhabitants, trendy, the place there’s a revolution of ladies and the LGTBI motion is big; than the north. But the sworn virgins are disappearing. There are only a few alive.

Now one thing is altering, males need to relear and reeducate “

P. What are the challenges in terms of women’s rights in Albania?

R. There is a long way to go, especially in the north of the country. The woman there is still a kind of property of men due to honor. You cannot leave and have a relationship with someone; The brother or father have to approve it. They no longer kill you, but feminicide is still very strong in Albania.

P. Do you think we are in a boom to tell the reality of women?

R. It is being done and literature is very important. It is our moment. It is now or never. The Metoo Movement began everything, but there is still a long way to go. I do not know how it is here, but in Switzerland, which is a very civilized country, work and salaries remains great. Now something is changing, men have to relear and reeduc. And at this moment they hate us. I am a feminist, but not those who are angry, because I don’t see enemies, I believe in working together; But if we have to break any nose, we will.

P. What obsesses him now for his next book?

R. In my books all the time along with totally different worlds during which I’ve lived. So it’s the story of two girls – there are males round, in fact – one is Switzerland and Danish, and the opposite is a Albanian who has migrated to Switzerland. Start with one dying and know one another.