"A sworn virgin is called such because she swears—takes a vow under the law of the Kanun—to become a man. From the day she takes this vow (which is sometimes at a very early age), she becomes a man: she dresses like one, acts like one, walks like one, works like one, talks like one, and her family and community treat her as one. She is referred to as he. He will never marry and will remain celibate all of his life."
I find this interesting because I'm reading Cynthia Eller's "Am I A Woman?" and have just gotten to a chapter where she's stated that the key thing about being a woman as a primary identity as opposed to say, being a church member or something else, is that you can never be an ex-woman, you can't quit the gender without major surgery. Well, here appears to be her exception...