The goal of our project was to understand and document the changing experience of women in northern Albania over the past century, using a traditional costume, the xhubleta, as a lens to see into their lives. Women no longer wear the xhubleta in everyday life, but it is still an important cultural artifact worn on special events and passed down matrilineally. We interviewed elderly women in rural areas with personal ties to the xhubleta to give voice to their stories. We found contradictions surrounding the various cultural meanings assigned to the dress, with women’s subjugation under patriarchal customs co-existing with women’s pride in wearing it.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Barsoumian, Tina Anahid
• Hull, Garth Matthew
• Conneilly, Erin Michelle
• Krawczyk, Edward Tarleton

Subject

• Culture
• Inclusion
• Community

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-121418-085048

Keyword

• Women--Social conditions

Advisor

• Hersh, Robert
• Dodson, Leslie Lynn

Year

• 2018

Center

• Tirana, Albania Project Center - IQP

Sponsor

• GO2 Albania
• Shkreli, Eljana

Date created

• 2018-12-14

Location

• Tirana

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2020-11-23