The tiny, 28-year-old woman whose hair is already streaked with grey is more than four months pregnant – beyond the nation’s legal abortion limit – but says she is ready to risk her life to make sure this baby is not born.

It is an all too frequent scene in Albania where the Council of Europe, the continent’s 47-member state democracy and rights watchdog, warns that sex selective abortions have led to boys outnumbering girls 112 to 100 – out of sync with the biological standard sex ratio at birth of 104-106 males to every 100 females.

Sex selective abortions – and in earlier times infanticide – have been cited as an indicator for skewed sex ratios in some Asian nations where tradition prefers sons.

UN figures show China, India and Vietnam have the biggest imbalance, but the Council of Europe warns that the practice has spread to Europe – and has singled out Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

“Traditionally Albanian families have favoured boys over girls for two main reasons: the inheritance of the family name and the prospect of boys growing up to become breadwinners,” a 2005 report by the UN Development Programme said.

“It is a mentality that has remained,” said Aferdita Onuzi, a noted anthropologist here. “In certain regions a girl is sometimes seen as a heavy burden.”

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