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I'm sure many men have dreamed of an island completely populated by exotic women. Of course, fantasy is fantasy, but what if it were reality? In a certain regard, it is — in Noiva do Cordeiro, Brazil.
It's a scenic rural town in the hills outside of Belo Horizante with one big quirk, or perk, depending on whom you talk to. This Brazilian town is inhabited and governed almost entirely by women, its population consisting of more than 600 mostly single women aged 20 to 25. Sons are sent away at 18, and spouses are banned from the town except on weekends.
Now the women have made an appeal to bring more single men to the town. But there's one caveat: Men have to follow their rules. OK, that shouldn't be too hard to do. But the truth is that any incoming men have to follow all the guidelines that the women created, from town planning to farming, religion, and more.
The motivation for the way the town is set up is a direct result of its history: The town was founded in 1891 by Maria Senhorinha de Lima, who had been excommunicated as an adultress after leaving a man she had been forced to marry. Over time, she was joined by other single women and female-headed families, and the insular society came into being. In the 1940s, an evangelical pastor, Anisio Pereira, took one of the town's 16-year-old girls as his wife and founded a church there, imposing strict puritanical rules. When he died in 1995, the town's women determined that they would never again be subject to male domination, and they dismantled Pereira's church.
Resident Nelma Fernandes, 23, said, "The only men we single girls meet are either married or related to us…. We all dream of falling in love and getting married. But we like living here and don't want to have to leave the town to find a husband." If Web traffic is any indication of interested possible suitors, it appears that the town's plea worked: Its website went down because of all the visitors to the site. So, fellas looking for an opportunity like this, pack your bags — Brazilian girls are calling.
