A family in mountainous area of Diber in East Albania was interviewed this week by Top Channel, a television network as a family with ten children aged three to twenty-three years old. Nine of the ten children are girls, the last one is boy. Two other boys were unfortunate and died. The head of the family, Nazmi Shehi, does not explain why he choose to have so many babies but he says that all of them were planed pregnancies. "It could have been better if I had twelve because in that case, a full set of spoons would be complete," he says. He seems to be not so much a sophisticated liar. This is the typical story of searching for a male heir. The names of the children includes three typical Muslim names, Fatime, Kimete and Ajeti (the boy), six Albanian natural/pagan names, Suela, Pranvera, (Spring), Blerina, (Green valley), Lulezime, (Blossom), Lindita, (Daybreak) and Valbona, (the name borrowed by a river).
Anyway, this is not the general picture of Albania. According to the National Institute of Statistics, the average fertility is currently 1.4 children per woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment