Circumcision in Albania
Before and after the fall of communism
Location and cultural history
Albania is located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea between Montenegro (formerly a part of Yugoslavia) and Greece.
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The area was conquered in the 15th century by the Ottoman Empire and remained under Ottoman control as part of the Rumelia province until 1912, when the first independent Albanian state was declared. The residue of Ottoman Turkish influence is most obvious in the religious beliefs of the Albanian people; the predominant religion is Islam and, in consequence, one might expect widespread acceptance of circumcision as a norm.
Invaded by Fascist Italy on 7th April 1939 (NB: before the official start of World War 2), the country remained occupied by Italians (not Germans) until the disintegration of the Italian Fascist state in late August 1943. Then and only then was Albania occupied by the Wehrmacht.
Communist partisans, supplied with weapons air-dropped by British forces, gained control of southern Albania from January 1944 onwards. On 24th May 1944 the communists met to organise an Albanian government; Enver Hoxha became chairman of the Executive Committee and Supreme Commander of the National Liberation Movement. Hence the date on the old Coat-of-Arms of Albania.
German forces withdrew from the capital, Tirana, in November 1944 whereupon the communists took full and unopposed control. Albania became a communist state (the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania) which for the most part of its duration was dominated by Enver Hoxha until his death in 1985.
Hoxha himself was a militant atheist who took pride in his attempts to create the modern world’s first truly atheist state. From 1967, all forms of public worship were banned - both Muslim and Christian. It must be presumed that religious circumcisions ceased in consequence; parents are unlikely to have risked such evidence of religious affiliation being discovered, for example, during a school medical. An amendment to the country’s Penal Code in 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for "religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature". No Bibles or copies of the Holy Koran existed legally and former places of worship were stripped of their religious artefacts and converted to other uses.
The communist régime collapsed in 1990 and the present Republic of Albania was founded in 1991. The country subsequently suffered another economic failure and further social unrest involving mass emigration of Albanians to Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany and North America, but Albania survived to become a full member of NATO in 2009 and has also applied to join the European Union. However, it is likely to be some years before its economy and government meet the standards required for EU membership.
Circumcision rates in Albania today
Albanian government statistics suggest that 38% of the population are actively practising Muslims. Adding to that figure an allowance for medical and elective circumcisions, one might anticipate an overall rate of around 50%. However, there is no conclusive evidence to show that "arrears" from the days of enforced atheism have been made good, nor is it entirely clear whether circumcision is universally performed in Albanian Islam. There are departures from other norms of the faith; for example Albanian Muslims pray standing up rather than performing the traditional salah ritual.
Acknowledgements
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