Hymen surgery in Islamic countries

The word "virgin" appeared in English in the 13th century and referred to a young woman who had no sexual intercourse yet. Virginity in German means any woman or man who is "untouched".

contents

• Myth hymen
• The Virgin Mary
• virginity tests
• Jungfräulichkeits operations
• Artificial hymen
• Virginity in Islam
• Virginity and sexual violence
• Iran
• Saudi Arabia
• Turkey
• Swell:

Virginity, however, usually refers to girls for two reasons: First, virginity is traditionally viewed from a male-dominated and heterosexual perspective, so a girl loses virginity when a male penis has penetrated it. Second, piercing the maidenhair is often associated with bleeding that has long been considered proof of defloration.

Virginity, defined as an intact hymen, is considered a sign of sexual purity in Islamic societies and represents the honor of a woman and her family. However, the loss of virginity before marriage is considered shameful in many other cultures, such as China and the Mediterranean. In many Islamic countries, an intact hymen has such significant social value that serious problems arise, namely, crimes or even blood feuds, when a newly married girl is no longer a virgin.

Virginity as a concept is considered outdated in most Western European and US countries, except in very conservative regions or among Christians, but in some countries of Africa, Asia, South America and Southeast Europe sex before marriage is still a taboo, and an intact one Hymen brings various problems for unmarried women with them.

Myth hymen

Hymen comes from the Greek word hyalos and means membrane. The Greeks used the term for any kind of anatomical membrane, but at the same time Hymen was the Greek god of the wedding.

These two facts summarize conventional wisdom about this commonly misunderstood topic, that this fabled membrane seals the opening of the vagina and is "pierced", "broken" or "torn" when women are wet and have sex - especially the first time.

For thousands of years, many cultures believed that the "breaking" of the hymen causes pain, up to the idea that women should experience pain at first intercourse.

Some cultures believed that an investigation could prove whether a woman is a virgin or not. An intact hymen demonstrated her dignity while otherwise losing her "flower".

Because many cultures believed that the Hymen's "puncture" required bleeding, fresh husbands hung bloody sheets out the window to prove that their wives had been virgins.

The hymen was historically the focus in many traditions to mark the virginity of the woman. Many mysteries circle the hymen, in many cultures it is the precious "price" that a wife pays to her husband on the wedding night. Sometimes the newlyweds must have intercourse right after the wedding ceremony, and then appear in front of the guests with the blood-stained sheet to prove that the bride was a virgin.

The hymen played an important role in the story: it proved the father's tutelage over the daughters, it expressed a holiness, it was a source of honor for families, a bond between guilt and innocence, and, above all, a way to control the behavior of women. His integrity often meant a matter of life and death.

The Virgin Mary

Early mother goddesses often did not stand for virginity, but on the contrary for female fertility and sexuality lived out as the German Freya, the Anatolian Cybele, the Cypriot Aphrodite, the Egyptian Isis and the many-breasted Artemis.

Goddesses of the archaic hunters and gatherers were warriors and hunters with an aggressive sexuality, predators that gave and took the mysterious life. Myths teem with mistresses of wild animals such as the bear Artemis or the "wolfish" hunting goddess Diana. Morrigan, the death queen of the Celts, transforms herself into a wolf.

Barbara Ehrenreich explains this significance of the woman as a carnivor from the mental connection between the vagina in the menstruation and the bloodied mouth of the predator. The uterus of Mother Earth, from which comes the life, and the hellmouth of Satan, who devours it, belong together.

The Germanic Freya was the goddess of love, in an explicitly physical sense. Two wildcats pulled their car, the symbol of sexuality. For the cats, whose lust cries the Teutons heard in the woods, have always stood for the lust of the woman.

In Christianity, the goddess Freya became the witch in the covenant with the devil, and the holy cat became the beast of Satan.

The most bloodthirsty goddess of the present time is Kali. It springs from the forehead of the goddess of war Durga, because it becomes angry. It destroys the demons, but it can not quench their bloodlust. In her hand she carries a saber and around her neck a chain of severed heads. At the same time it promises protection and unites the opposites. Even today the Hindus sacrifice their daily life in Kolkata - the city of Kali - to the blood of goats, formerly also of humans. The blood-red triangular tongue of this killing goddess symbolizes a powerful as well as deadly vagina. Later blood red, eros and power combine in red lipstick.

The devotees of the ancient Greek god of ecstasy, Dionysus, were not only considered lustful, they also allegedly tore up animals and their male sexual objects. The woman with her bleeding was connected to the mystery of life and death.

From the untamed goddesses of antiquity to the virgin mother of the Christian Messiah, there was a long way to the symbolic disempowerment of women: Egyptian stone figures show, for example, a mother with a child (ca 2118-1976 BCE) and an Isis with Horuskind (c. A later women's sculpture from Greece depicts Artemis of Ephesus, whose unclothed pieces are made of black marble, while the "clothing" is made of white marble and covered by various breasts such as animal bodies, including goats, cattle, cats and deer. Meanwhile, late antiquity already formed a feminine ideal that embodied in sexual fidelity and motherhood.

virginity tests

In the Christian and Islamic Middle Ages, virginity played an important role, and there were tests to recognize a virgin - as varied as obscure: thus one should discover a virgin by the color of her urine, which was clear and bubbling with a virgin, or in the direction in which her breasts showed, for the bosom of a pure virgin was directed to God in heaven.

In some cultures, the girl's family or the groom's family sends the young woman to a "specialist" to prove her virginity. Doctors and nurses are asked to perform so-called virginity, that is, to examine the female genitalia to find out if any sexual action took place on the woman's abdomen.

Virginity and marriage in such cultures have nothing to do with the private intimacy of two people, but are a social rule in which women are in principle mistrusted. The word of the woman who says she is a virgin is not enough.

In the Islamic tradition, the virginity of a woman is the basis for her family, for her future groom and his family. Therefore, Muslims often arrange early weddings for their daughters to make sure that these girls experience puberty as virgin brides. The sexual abuse of children by adult husbands, however, is one of these children's weddings.

Bahram, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Sharif Industrial University in Tehran, explained this double standard between men:

"I know many educated men who claim that virginity is not important to them, but at the same time they do not want to marry their girlfriends and prefer them exclusively as partners," he says. Bahram continues, "A few who married non-virgins see this as a trump card that they can later play off against their wives."

In Iran, a country with a rigid virginity constraint, many modern women are choosing their partners today if they really are serious and say, "If you want to marry a virgin, find a different relationship" and expect a trusted partner that he shares the mystery of non-virginity with them.

Virginity tests are usually used to control the sexuality of girls. It is an attempt by men, women and the elderly to control the boys. Virginity tests are considered sexual border crossing in most western countries, but in many countries the practice is cultural, economic and religious.

Virginity tests come in many forms, many of which are without scientific support. Although doctors have proven the uselessness of the test, the most widely used test is still the intact hymen.

Medical is the nonsense: Neither shows an intact Hymen necessary that a woman had no sexual intercourse, nor shows a torn Hymen the act performed. The Hymen can tear through various forms of activity, in sports as well as in physical work. It may also remain intact, especially during gentle sexual intercourse and a small penis.

Nevertheless, the belief is widespread that the hymen ruptures at the first traffic and causes bleeding. For example, at the Sinhalas in Sri Lanka, it is part of the wedding for the mother-in-law to provide a white sheet on which the couple must attend the wedding night, and this sheet must be presented as proof to the parents-in-law.

In some parts of South Africa, virginity tests are increasing in response to the AIDS epidemic. Women are more affected by AIDS and virginity tests on girls and young women should show if it is safe to have sex with them.

However, not only the hymen is being investigated in South Africa; "Testers" also believe that they could recognize the virginity of a girl by the "innocence" in their eyes or the strength of their muscles behind the knee. Municipalities also started testing boys because the girls' focus was discriminatory: boys have to pee over a meter-high wall without using their hands, or their "virginity" should be reflected in the thickness of the forehead.

A dangerous custom is rife in southern Uganda: locals believe that an AIDS patient could heal himself by penetrating a virgin. The victims are not only raped, but often infected with HIV.

Unmarried women who undergo virginity tests usually tell of accidents. For example, they say they fell from trees or bicycles, or a stick would have rammed them between their legs.

The analysis of these stories shows very clearly that these women are in a position where they are not responsible for losing their virginity. In cultures where women are considered to be the responsible evil with an omnipotent sexuality and are being controlled as well as punished, it is not surprising that women play the role of irresponsible.

A gynecologist doing hymen surgery says most of the girls who come to him are unaccompanied and ashamed of having sex:

"Many of them flee in lies, like those who jumped from a great height on the ground or were beaten by their fathers," he says.

Jungfräulichkeits operations

"Hymenoplasty" refers to a surgical procedure to reconstruct a torn hymen, which helps to restore "virginity" by repairing the hymen so as to ensure marriageability in a cultural context. in which female virginity is required. In this operation, the remnants of the hymen are sutured together, a capsule of fluid is used with blood-like consistency to simulate a bleeding during the next intercourse.

A woman undergoing such an operation is in danger. Of course, such operations are illegal in countries with a virginity obligation and take place in dirty backyard clinics that pose many risks. If the operation fails or proves ineffective, the woman can not take any legal action to hold the doctor accountable.

Secrecy is one of the reasons for the high cost of such operations, making them a lucrative business for gynecologists. The other reason for the high costs is the economic value of an intimate hymen. A restored hymen also restores the material value of virginity, ensuring the woman's ability to marry. So repairing a hymen is a valuable investment to secure a husband and start a "career" as a wife.

This is particularly important because virginity compulsion generally applies in societies where unmarried women not only have low social status but also have little chance of gaining a skilled occupation, and where the family, and not the welfare state, is the basis for represents economic security.

In recent decades, the need for surgical repair of hybrids in the Middle East and in Islamic communities in western countries has increased sharply, along with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and social social conservatism in these regions. For example, reports show an alarming rate of racist hysterectomy in Tunisia, especially in the summer months, the marriage season.

Restorative Hymenchirugie is part of a cultural context that discriminates against women. Only women are punished for premarital sex, having to worry about their virginity and having to pay for expensive surgery to restore the hymen to stay "pure".

Plastic hymenchirugia thus shows the weakness and low social status of women in their society and their need to resort to such operations - the cause being extreme hard and discriminatory cultural values.

Artificial hymen

The artificial hymen is a small piece of plastic that pretends to bleed on penetration. It is also known as "Chinese hymen" or "fake hymen". It releases a fluid that looks like blood when a penis punctures it.

The virginity cult necessarily produces a culture of fraud. Feigned virginity is the product of social degradation of women to the point of life and death, honor and disgrace, marriage or social isolation, respect or murder. The artificial hymen expresses a survival instinct. In this respect, it is a small price to pay for the Hymenrestauration compared to a life in social ostracism or even death.

A sufferer says, "I do not feel good about lying to him. I do not like to start our life together with a lie. But I think I have to lie to protect the relationship. I am unable to talk to my parents about the operation. I do not want this operation, but I have no choice. "

A culture of untruth is the inevitable result of the cult of female virginity. Women in these societies are forbidden to enjoy sex in their own right, it is outlawed and brutally punished. Even certain sexuality of women in this belief soils the honor of the family and directly endangers male control in a patriarchal sense.

Virginity in Islam

In an Islamic society, the virginity of a girl is worth more than her life. She has to preserve virginity, and the loss of her "innocence" is her fault, even after a rape.

The participation of girls in sports and games is limited to keep the hymen intact. Many parents punish their daughters for touching the genitals because they fear they damage the hymen by masturbating.

The Islamic laws governing sexuality are rigid and do not change when the values ​​of society change in everyday culture. Virginity at the time of the wedding is a key element of Islamic morality.

In the Qur'an, Appendix 34 says, "Sons and daughters of the true believers must be taught that their happiness depends on God's law and preserving their chastity. This Quran the Final Testament, by Rashad Khalifa, PhD.

According to Islamic teachers, Allah created the hymen to demonstrate the value of sexual intercourse after the wedding. The hymen therefore makes it clear to women that sexual relations outside of marriage are perversions of a sacred act and thus unclean.

Women, on the other hand, are generally expected to enter a marriage as virgins. The "virginity cult", which is very noticeable in all Islamic countries, also finds support from the theologians: they argue that it is a general human tendency to want to have pleasant things in the same way over and over again. From this one concludes that a woman who had previously had another partner, could not be satisfied with her later. Feminist authors, such as the Moroccan Fatima Mernissi, see it simply as "the fear of the macho before comparison".

Virginity and sexual violence

In ancient times, virginity appears as an exclusive feminine virtue. Christianity explained this virtue theologically: Virgins could therefore expect more appreciation in heaven than married women. Female slaves whose virginity was occupied achieved higher prices; Puberty and sexual initiation was reserved for boys.

In Arabia, uncircumcised girls are considered impure. Girls are taught that their main mission in life is to stay virgins until marriage. If they do not, the fathers sometimes kill them or send them to homes.

Women who lost their virginity when not married lost the right to possession. This made their lives extremely difficult and forced many of these women into prostitution.

In some parts of the world there are "honor crimes": women who lose their virginity before the wedding can be beaten or killed by their family. The justification for this is that father, brother, or another male relative thinks that they have done something "wrong.".

Being pregnant is the worst thing that can happen to an unmarried girl in Islamic societies, because pregnancy outside of marriage causes great shame among his parents, brothers, uncles and all the men of the extended family. Usually this girl is murdered. If there is a possibility, the girl drives off to hide the pregnancy and to protect the "honor" of the family.

When a non-virgin marries, she will never enjoy marriage because whenever problems arise, she is always reminded that she married after she lost her virginity and that causes pain and suffering.

Mehri, who lives in Tehran and honestly admitted to her husband before the wedding that she lost her virginity, says, "I married a leftist man who claims to be non-religious. When I said that I'm no longer a virgin, he accepted that. I was very happy that I was married to such an open minded man. Life after the wedding got a different face for me, because in every quarrel with him and his family, he reminded me that I was not a virgin before marriage. This story has lasted until now, where we have a 12-year-old son. "

Muslims see sex as a blessed gift of Allah. They believe that people's strong sexual drive should be controlled and enjoyed only in marriage. Muslims should dress "chaste" and not wear clothes that could excite other people. Sex before the wedding is prohibited.

In most Islamic countries, this prohibition is circumvented, for example, by girls having anal sex in order to protect their sacred virginity.

Iran

Like the metropolises in many countries, Tehran, the capital of Iran, is much more relaxed in sexual matters before marriage than the small towns and villages of Iran, where sex outside marriage is neither discussed nor an option on the horizon.

In Tehran, too, abortions are illegal and contraceptives are hard to find, girls even talk to their best friends about not having sex, and sexual education at school is pure biology.

If an adult couple decides to marry, it has to take courses where it is educated about sex, but in schools sex is not an issue at all, unless a teacher sees it as his duty to educate.

Young people, especially girls, usually live with their parents until they are married, severely limiting their freedoms. It is also illegal to rent a hotel room without a marriage document - the only things left for sex are public places, which is extremely risky, or an empty house when the parents travel.

Like most girls in her neighborhood, Tahmineh, for example, is a virgin. In her world, virginity is required. For the men around them, female virginity is an indispensable prerequisite for marriage. Even among the richer classes, who live "western" and celebrate parties with alcohol and music, only the men sleep around, while expecting a "pure" for the wedding.

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia it is considered a tragedy when a young woman loses her virginity. Her chances of finding an acceptable groom fall to zero, even if she is only suspected of not being a virgin anymore. When a loss of virginity becomes known, not only will the young woman be ostracized, but her family as well. The family is accused of having no control over their daughter or having failed to explain the difference between right and wrong.

No matter how a woman loses her virginity before the wedding, it's always a disaster. If a man does not marry a divorcee or widow, blood is expected on the sheets the day after the wedding night. In some traditional families, the sheets are collected and exhibited as part of the celebration and as proof that the marriage has been completed, uniting the families and illustrating the purity of the woman.

The loss of virginity before marriage created a black market in and outside of Saudi Arabia. Because it is illegal, it is up to foreign doctors and nurses to restore the hymen so that their blood flows on the wedding night.

The Hymen restorers are aware of the risks that they incur through such services: they can be thrown into jail and banished from the kingdom. Her merit, and some of her compassion for the women, makes her take this risk.

These doctors work by verbal agreement and are very suspicious of anyone who asks them for help on their cell phones. They use pre-paid phones and leave no evidence of their true identity. Most do not have an office, and there is no guarantee that they will operate in a sterile environment.

Ahmad, a young Saudi groom, says of his feeling on the wedding night:

"I was shocked to see that there was no blood after I slept with her. I took her to the hospital to see if she was a virgin or not. I was so angry that I ran out of the bedroom and the bride's family was ripe to explain the cause. The family promised to assist me to find out what was going on. I took her to an examination. The doctor at the hospital said that my bride has a genital problem, but that does not endanger our sexual lives. I brought the bride home. Only a few words from the doctor preserved our marriage. "

Turkey

Virginity is a good thing in Turkey, both because of the position of virginity in Islam and in the Turkish tradition. Turkish teenagers therefore see virginity as an important asset, especially for women; however, the ideas and perspectives of the young Turks have changed in recent decades.

As in Iran and Saudi Arabia, pre-wedding virginity is considered a family property to honor their honor. A woman who has sexual intercourse before marriage is considered to be dishonorable. At the same time, sexual promiscuity is a sport for men. What's more, a man who has not "exhausted himself" before marriage is not considered a real man.

The patriarchal control over the bodies of women is produced in Turkey by codes of honor and shame. Honor is based on the legitimacy of paternalism and belongs above all to men. The honor of a man is defined as keeping intact what is his possession - and that includes the virginity of his daughter or sister.

In a culture like Turkey, where family relationships are very strong and the family is above the individual, relationships are patriarchal. The virginity of the woman before the wedding is not an individual decision, but a matter for the family. The bodies of women are controlled by the family. The virginity of the woman is not a personal matter, but a social phenomenon.

As in Saudi Arabia and Iran, women in Turkey resort to surgical assistance to "repair" the hymen. Through this "artificial virginity," she becomes "pure" again, and her family honor is restored.

Although cultural, historical, economic and other factors are passing virginity tests in Turkey, the Turkish Medical Association condemns such trials as a form of sexual violence. In 1999, Turkey banned virginity tests after five girls committed suicide by taking rat poison to escape the test. Another girl drowned.

However, in 2001, the Turkish Minister of Health allowed virginity tests for female nurses. Those who failed were expelled from school. There was a public outcry against the tests, and in 2002, the Turkish government closed a loophole that allowed school leaders to investigate whether girls were virgins. In Atatürk secular Turkey virginity is a cultural and Islamic tradition and not a law of the state - unlike Islamist-ruled countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The "cold coup" of the Islamist Erdogan, with the Zeil transforming secular Turkey into an Islamic state of God, however, exacerbates the pressure on women who themselves are determined to live their sexuality, and if the progressive forces of the country do not oppose the Islamic dictatorship , women who live their physicality, a similar horror as in Saudi Arabia. (By Somayeh Ranjbar, translated from English by Dr. Utz Anhalt)

Swell:

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The Virginity Trap in the Middle East, David Ghanim, 2015, New York

The Hymen: A Membrane Widely Misunderstood

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