For many living beings and firstly for the humans, since we know the most about our

kind rather than the other members of the animal kingdom, many parts of the characteristics

are built by environmental factors too, as much as they are formed through genetics. So, the

concept of gender is one of the biggest examples that how environment could be effective on

the individual’s way of defining themselves.

The distinction between the sex and gender, is easer to address than it is in many

different languages. Sex is something that an individual born with, but gender is something

that the individuals built by themselves, also not ignoring the outer effects such as the society.

Because as being exposed the society and its norms from the nuclear family, the individuals

cannot ignore how it shapes themselves.

As the example of Sworn Virgins since many of those societies are the former settled,

agricultural societies, patriarchy is a key and common factor. Being just an inherited,

primitive and muscle power-based perception that comes from the late forager times,

patriarchy still manages to exist today. As much as it changes over time, still in many

countries blood line is followed through the males and fathers or male figures are accepted as

the most authoritative representers of their families. This ancient way of thinking of the

society is what creates the Sworn Virgins.

The Sworn Virgins, who are the females who are mostly forced to act as the patriarchs

of their families when the current one is killed in a blood feud, had to have a transition from

their biological sexes which is female, to males. The society is obliging an individual to live a

life that it forces onto them, not giving a choice. This also displays an example how women

are the ones that mostly take the scars, not be able to have a sense of self-fulfillment.

As the individuals are affected by the environmental factors a lot, a women being

accepted and acted on as a man, it becomes the reality for the women through time. For
example, more than one burrnesha states that he feels like a man now and even with their

pronouns, they have become men because they have been living as one for almost a century.

As the time passes, the individual starts to feel like the person who they have been told to be

after some point. Especially in the cases like burrneshas’, if the individual is grown up to be

different person than they have wanted to be or biologically expected to be from the age of 7

or 14, they became the person that society creates, including their gender roles.

I believe that this tradition is something that challenges the gender roles and also

shows a great example about how the society itself determines its borders. If a transgender

individual tries to come out as one, they instantly reject them but on the other hand they create

a mandatory transgender person by their hands.

Ayşe Buket MERT

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