A sad news comes from the city of Durrës. Today, Burrnesha of Durrës, Diana Rakipi or Lali, as she was called, passed away. She passed away at the age of 70, for reasons that are still unknown.
Diana Rakipi or Lali, as she was called, had lost contact with her relatives. After the announcement they made, the firefighters found a dead body in the apartment where he lived.
Daughter in a family with many children (3 brothers and 5 sisters), Diana was a living witness of the old Albanian traditions, included in the canon of Lek Dukagjin, where sworn virgins, or burrnesh, are women who undertake a vow of chastity and wear male clothes to live as men in the patriarchal societies of Northern Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.
Lali vowed to return to Burrnesha while Albania was still under the communist regime. She sometimes delivered strong messages to the girls: "Be your own lady, take your destiny in your hands and never give up in the face of anything."