Chapter 996 Incomprehensible Tradition
No matter how bizarre Hoxha's foreign policy was, in fact, he was the one who truly brought benefits to Albania. At that time, Albanians had almost everything except money.
Pretty much like the former Soviet Union.
Of all Hoxha's policies, two were only implemented after a bloody purge by the national police: one was the declaration that religion was prohibited in the country, with penalties for those caught proselytizing—directly death. The other was the abolition of traditional Albanian law and the adoption of laws similar to those of the Soviet Union.
Albania has had its own set of laws and rules since the Middle Ages. These laws were passed down orally from generation to generation for hundreds of years. It was not until the eve of World War I that someone summarized these laws in books, totaling more than 1,200 articles.
To abolish this traditional law, Hoxha put in more effort than banning religion in the country! It's no exaggeration to describe Albania at that stage as a "bloodbath."
Why did he have to abolish Albanian traditional laws?
It is true that many things in this traditional law are incomprehensible.
How low is the status of women in Albania? We can see this from the relevant provisions in traditional laws:
Women could not go out alone on the street; women could not drink, sing, or speak loudly; women could not freely fall in love; marriage had to be decided by their father or brother; women could not divorce for life; women could only do two things in their lives: give birth to children and raise them; if a man died, a woman could not inherit or hold any property; except for the clothes she wore, everything else did not belong to her...
In other words: only during the years when Hoxha abolished Albania's traditional laws did Albanian women truly live a good life!
Anyone who dares to disobey will be put in jail by Hoxha!
Hoxha abolished traditional laws, on the one hand because of the status of women, and on the other hand because there was a law among these traditional laws that was really difficult to evaluate.
Albania's traditional laws are relatively primitive, and they particularly advocate "fighting violence with violence and an eye for an eye"!
For example, if a man kills another man, the typical response would be to arrest and sentence the murderer, right? But what about traditional Albanian law? The victim's family can kill one man or two women from the murderer's family—women are only considered half a person there!
The result of these repeated attacks on both sides is a feud between the two families, much like the Capulets and the Montagues (the families of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). Often, every member of a family, young and old, would join forces to attack the other. "Kill your entire family" wasn't just a slogan; sometimes, after a clan war, only the women and children of one family remained. These children, in turn, would remember the grudge and, when they grew up, would go on to attack the other family again. In short, the feud was endless. Some feuds between families even lasted for centuries!
During Hoxha's time, he used tough measures to abolish traditional laws. However, after his death, the newly elected Berisha directly ruined the country. As a result, the people no longer trusted the government. Coupled with the 700,000 guns that were released to the public during the riots, in some remote areas of Albania, traditional laws once again took center stage.
Since the Berisha regime came to power in Albania, it no longer suppresses those who believe in Albania's traditional laws. Every year, people are killed because of this kind of family feud. In 2016 alone, the Albanian authorities reported more than 40 homicides due to this kind of family feud - and these are just the official reports.
All the men in Ilka's family perished in this family conflict, leaving only the women in the family. However, according to traditional law, women were not allowed to inherit property and could not seek revenge. The only way for the family to survive was for the women to be "transformed" into men, a process known as "sworn maidens."
These "sworn maidens" possess the power of men, so they can inherit the family property, and can also rush into the other party's house with knives and guns to continue the family conflict - when she dies, they will find the next "sworn maiden".
In fact, not all young women are willing to be "virgins". Some want to get married, and some do not want to take up arms, but they can only go this far due to family responsibilities.
Ilka was such a "sworn virgin". She was definitely unwilling to do this, but she was the only one in her family who met this condition at the time, so she became a "sworn virgin".
She originally thought that her life was over, until she accidentally met Soo Jung-suk who was traveling to Albania, and her life changed dramatically.
This is a story of 'knowledge changes destiny'.
Albania is a strange country. Located north of Greece, across the sea from Italy, its language bears no resemblance to the surrounding nations. It's neither Greek nor the Slavic languages to the north. Albanian's writing system, established only in 1967, incorporates loanwords from Greek, Turkish, Italian, and other Slavic languages.
This is definitely a minority language among minority languages. Furthermore, due to the riots of 20 years ago, the country has been completely destroyed, and the people are poorly educated. Even fewer people can speak a foreign language. The most annoying thing about traveling there is the translation problem!
Ilka's childhood dream was to leave her hometown and go to France, so she taught herself French. She happened to meet Soo Jung-suk who was traveling there.
Soo Jung-suk is a genuine rich second-generation, so it is not difficult for him to take someone away from Albania. He happened to be studying abroad at the University of Paris X, so he spent some money to bring Ilka to Paris.
Ilka thought this was the beginning of a happy life, so she grew her hair long again. In order to express her gratitude to Soo Jung-suk, she dyed her blonde hair black like Soo Jung-suk...
Turns out, Soo Jung Suk is a demon.
There was a problem with the development of his male sex organs. In Ilka's words, 'He is not a man.' This physical defect caused him psychological problems as well.
Two words summed it all up: pervert. The injuries on Ilka's body proved it all.
To complete her studies and stay in Paris without having to return to Albania, Ilka chose to endure it. However, Soo Jung-suk became more aggressive, each time becoming more ruthless. Whenever he got upset, Ilka was the one who suffered.
This time he was whipped here, and Ilka was also scared - usually he would whip himself severely if others rolled their eyes at him, but this time if he took it out on himself again, he might lose his life!
So she hid in Xiao Peng's car to escape from Zhu Zhengshuo, but she almost lost her life - and almost scared Xiao Peng to death!
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