Kihnu – An Island Ruled by Women

On the Kihnu Island in the Baltic Sea, Estonia, every object, sound and piece of clothes deserves to be put on the list of World Heritages.

Here, during the summer months will welcome you huge seagulls that will fly over your boat long before your come to the land. After that you will notice the wonderful colorful small houses. But this is not a village you can see on Faroe or Hebride Islands. This is a unique place called Kihnu.

At the same moment when the hot days will end, that are anyways lasting for too short, this village is covered with snow and ice. But this is not what makes it unique – this is due to the women and only the women.

In fact, in this village the men are not important, and this is the only reason why Kihnu is called the Island of the women.

Kihnu function according to the principles of matriarchy – men go fishing and women are those that deals with the politics and the keep the traditions.

The culture in Kihnu is under the protection of UNESCO from 2003, but the real guardians of the culture here, which includes traditional dances, clothes and more than 1700 dialects are only the women.

The interesting fact about the traditional Kihnu clothes is that they are identical to those that women from Peru are making, which is 12000 km far away to west. The women here are wearing exclusively their handmade clothes.