Instrumental borders of gender and religious conversions in the Balkans

Translated into Albanian: *Polis*, vol. 5, 2008, pp. 101-108. (http://revistapolis.com/pdf/POLIS%205.pdf).International audienceIn this paper I explore the ways and extents to which religious identifications and affiliations become instrumental political resources for ascertaining hierarchical relations among social groups and individuals, with extensive use of gendered metaphors referring to different categories of people as whether effeminate or truly manly, and actual women often used as a currency of exchange