Indianapolis, Indiana

  Conservative clerics in Egypt are in a conundrum. A new device sold by a Chinese company threatens to make every Egyptian woman who uses it, a virgin. The “Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit” distributed by Gigimo costs about $30.00 is intended to help newly married women fool their husbands into believing that they are virgins by producing a small amount of blood like substance during intercourse.

The controversy began when a reporter from a Dutch radio station broadcast an Arabic translation of the Chinese advertisement for the product. Conservative members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s Parliament have since asked for a ban on the device. Prominent Egyptian scholar Abdel Moati Bayoumi said anyone who imports the device should be punished saying “This product encourages illicit sexual relations, Islamic culture forbids these relations except within the confines of marriage,” Bayoumi said.

The controversy over virginity and the newly provided ability to fake it, hits at the center of questions regarding the status of women in much of the Muslim world. Questions regarding female purity hold a crucial position in evaluating the worth of a woman and negotiating marriage contracts. In Egypt itself, thousands of women undergo hymen reconstruction surgery every year in order to fulfill preconditions of virginity for marriage and to avoid bringing shame to families.

The practice of hymen reconstruction surgery has migrated with Arab populations to European countries like France where young Muslim women may undergo the half hour surgery for a cost of about €2000 ($3,000). Others choose to go back to countries like Tunisia where they can get the surgery at lower cost. The surgery is legal in the European Union as well as in the United States where it falls in the category of elective surgery. While surgery itself is less common in Pakistan, women are routinely abused tortured and even killed if they are found not to be virgins upon being wed. In several cases, young brides have been known to commit suicide rather than risk bringing shame to their families.

The issue of whether virginity constitutes the total worth of a woman upon marriage (rendering her otherwise unmarriageable) was dealt with recently in a courtroom in the French city of Lille where the judge initially ruled that a marriage between a Muslim man and a woman could be annulled because the bride had lied about her virginity. A French appeals court then took up the issue of whether virginity was “an essential quality of a woman” and ended up reversing the previous decision that had decreed lying about virginity to be a grounds for fraud that would justify annulment. Of course, the outcome of the case would have been markedly different under Islamic law where deception regarding the virginity of the bride would result both in an annulment of the marriage and a repudiation of the dower.

Expectedly, as the news clips from Egypt amply illustrate, much of the clerical debate over the device has focused on the fact that it allows women to fake and flout the theological precept prescribing a prohibition on extra marital sexual relations. No argument is provided of the fact that the male involved may also have come to the marriage without proof of virginity which is equally theologically culpable but less easily verified. The assumption is that women’s virginity must necessarily be verifiable hence necessitating the ban on the Chinese virginity gadget while male virginity can conveniently be glossed over. Equally sexist are attempts to justify the concern over women’s virginity as one motivated by insuring the sexual purity of society in general since it ignores the reality that every extra marital sexual act involves by definition two parties, one male and one female which are both equally responsible for their actions.

The fact is, in Egypt, Pakistan and in a majority of Muslim countries the onus of protecting a society’s delusions of purity and piety are placed solely and singularly on the shoulders of women. In insuring that virgins are venerated and non-virgins vilified social constructions of good and bad women are enforced in a society where the value of a woman is little else than her ability to breed sons, please her husband and be a good housekeeper. The myth that is continually forwarded is that all those women who are not virgins are somehow dirty, impure and unworthy of marriage. No consideration is given to the fact that the majority of these women may be widows, divorcees or victims of sexual assault. In other words, male complicity in reducing women to non-virgin status is completely ignored in the whole discussion.

Because of this, thousands of widows, divorcees and rape victims in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are forced to live lives at the very margins of social acceptability. Not only can they not expect to be married again but they are further dealt the burden of being somehow morally compromised simply because they are no longer the pure virgins venerated as brides. Examples from Islamic history that suggest otherwise. For instance, the notable fact that the first marriage of the Prophet (pbuh) was to a non-virgin are given short shrift and virtually ignored.

It is interesting indeed, that the device in question that provides Muslim women with some semblance of empowerment against the strictures of proving their purity is being sold from China. Indeed, it brings to focus the vast disparity between nations like China, who have put their women to work and hence harnessed 51% of an unused labor force to become a manufacturing super power and countries like Pakistan and Egypt who are still squabbling over inanities that necessitate a device like the Artificial Hymen Kit. While Chinese women work to produce anything that sells and raise their country to new heights as an emerging power; Muslim women remain embroiled in proving that their worth is more than just their virginity.

When I read this article,I was reminded of how much it doesn't apply to me or my wife.

It seems a large part of the cultural differences between the Middle East and the West is the expectation of change. I don't always like the changes, but they ARE going to occur.

A virginity kit will not “fool” the husband of a newlywed widow or divorcee. The kit will not “empower” these women in the least. The only people the kit will empower are girls who have engaged in consensual premarital sex, girls who have had the misfortune of being raped, and virgin girls are born without hymens. That said, I agree with the main gist of your article: the double standards are patently unfair. The social marginalization of widows, rape victims, and divorcees is cruel, unjust, and ought to be addressed. The violence against women who do not “bleed on the first night” is despicable and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

That said, I don’t think the “kit” is the answer. I think a proper education regarding matters pertaining to human sexuality would be the best solution to this conundrum. In regards to pre-marital sex… both males and females should have strong feelings of guilt and shame and the threat of social ostracism looming over their heads in order to prevent them from engaging in the modes of behavior which have left over 80% of Americans STD infected. Re-conditioning society to accept pre-marital sex will only open the flood gates for STD’s and the wholesale suffering of women. Remember it is females not males who pay the physical, emotional, and financial price for pre-marital sex!

...which have left over 80% of Americans STD infected.
- Posted by Massinissa

At an 80% infection rate, the majority of the Americans would have to visit their doctor every month. That doesn't happen. Where did you get 80% from?


Re-conditioning society to accept pre-marital sex will only open the flood gates for STD’s and the wholesale suffering of women.
- Posted by Massinissa

Are you sure the horrors of pre-marital sex aren't a strawman argument against changing times?

<Where did you get 80% from?>

According to the American Health Association over 80% of Americans are infected with HPV... A SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE.

Are you sure the horrors of pre-marital sex aren't a strawman argument against changing times?

Did I even address changing times?

The argument was against the acceptance of the values of a nihilistic civlization whose members consider the wholesale degregation of women to be acceptable.

After all, doesn’t the United States have a multi-billion dollar industry devoted to the production of films featuring economically disadvantaged teenage girls having anal sex with farm animals while they being urinated, ejaculated, and defecated on by dozens of men they have never even met? What kind of savage, ignoble civilization is this? Is this a civilization whose values we should accept?

I didn't address a particular social change which was taking place... I called for one to take place. The ignorance pertaining to matters of human sexuality, the double standards when it comes to promiscuity, the mindless violence against girls who are deemed to be unchaste, and the vulgar sexual objectification of women must come to an end. The fact that all of this is taking place in many Muslim societies is a sign of civilizational decadence. That being said, the remedy to civilization decadence is not the mimiking of another decadent civilization!

Here's what the CDC web site says about the HPV figures.


http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm#common

Akenanubis: ("Organizations at War" just came in.) Thanks for the CDC link!

Massinissa: The CDC says about 50% of adults acquire HPV at some point in their lives, that doesn't mean the infection is permanent. The same is true for most other STDs.

Re-conditioning society to accept pre-marital sex will only open the flood gates for STD’s and the wholesale suffering of women.
- Posted by Massinissa

My point is: Pre-marital sex is unlikely to cause the demise of the world. Let's just stick with women retaining their own choices.

Fester ~ Don't you find it interesting that white people in the US are terrified of losing vital parts of their culture, to the extent that home schooled kids are conditioned to fear non-whites and people lament the dilution of American culture by foreigners over the most banal things like food and music. That immigrants wearing scarfs or face coverings are run through the mill by the media, at the risk that extremists will pollute pristine christian America.

Yet, when a cultural law, the primacy of which speaks to the roots of a societies identity, is suddenly demeaned by a cynical technology that holds no other material value than to deconstruct some of the central tenets of its people, the issue is peoples choice.

I personally don't doubt that Muslim women and men are for the most part modest and genuinely sanctify their bodies, to be shared only in marriage. I also don't doubt that most Muslims come from morally conservative cultures, that are intellectually liberal. Why treat these peoples concerns as meaningless?

In rural Kwazulu-Natal, liberals kick up a fuss over virginity testing. Yet the same people lament the failure of people to prevent HIV when they're liberated under the auspices of a western legal system. A legal system is not a nations culture. Ideally, the law progresses with the culture of a society in a meaningful harmony.

Yet when you force laws with no cultural point of reference other than loads of porn and action movies (and I'm not saying that is what the US is, only how it may be received), that same system of law can become a double edged sword. We see this Afghanistan where the most atrocious of "Islamic" laws are being passed to adapt a legal system to a culture whose laws are not centered on the liberty of the individual, but rather the welfare and harmonious co-existence of community.

It may seem silly to you, but it may have a deep impact on a society like Cairo where families rent tombs as homes and drug addiction is a serious problem destabilising hundreds of thousands of people. In the economic context of such people, its not that hard to understand the resistance to another potentially destructive tool.

Do most women really have the ability to freely choose in a society which places around the clock pressure on them to starve themselves, take off their clothes, and sexually please their male counterparts? Do women really have the ability to freely choose in a society which instills in them the belief that promiscuity is synonymous with liberation? Don’t get me wrong, there are a few people who are immune to social conditioning and actually make choices on the basis of reason rather then the sentiments instilled in them by society. But then again these people are the exception rather then the rule.

The problem I have with argument regarding freedom of choice is that it is premised on the erroneous assumption that human beings are autonomous creatures who are wholly rational and are in no way, shape or form products of their society.

.....home schooled kids are conditioned to fear non-whites...
- Posted by Ghulam

Where on earth did you get THAT from? OK, a few home schooled kids are taught to fear non-whites. Teaching kids anywhere in the U.S. to fear non-whites is by far the exception rather than the rule.

...but I keep forgetting that being a resident of South Africa makes you an expert on all things American.

...and yes, I know a few kids who've been home schooled.

I was born and raised in the United States fester and I can tell you that many white Americans really do take their children out of public schools and condition them to fear non-whites, Muslims, Jews, and pretty much anyone who is not a WASP. That said, I also know alot of Muslim who take their children out of public school in order to ensure that they are not "polluted" by what the see as being extreamly corrupting influences.

I was born and raised in the United States fester and I can tell you that many white Americans really do take their children out of public schools and condition them to fear non-whites, Muslims, Jews, and pretty much anyone who is not a WASP.
- Posted by Massinissa

With no offense intended to Akenanubis, that sounds like a New York phenomenon. When you get what people experience as large numbers (read as more than 10%) of the population as being different than themselves, they sometimes react like they're under attack. When it comes to having new kinds of people around, New York has that in spades.

With no offense intended to Akenanubis, that sounds like a New York phenomenon>>>

No offense taken. There does need to be a distinction between NYC and the rest of NY state. I was shocked to discover this. NYC is pretty diverse, I mean, wildly diverse and the melting pot really is here. There has been some rise in racism recently and some minor grumbling over an Islamic school that wanted to advertise on the subways. But that has kind of died down. I was surprised to even hear it to tell you the truth. I am not saying NYC is heaven on earth by any means. Just that the numbers of non-whites is so very, very high that if you have a problem you probably don't live here. I see people all the time walking around in all kinds of hijab here and I have never once seen anybody bat an eye or even turn around and stare. Everything is too common here. Outside NYC, upstate, that's a different story, depending on where you go. You can be in a town with high clan action, and drive 30 minutes and be in Woodstock. It's a really weird state.

Here's what the CDC web site says about the HPV figures.


http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm#common

Yes, and it says 1%, not 80%. I wonder what the numbers are for the non-reporting countries, such as any Muslim country

"We see this Afghanistan where the most atrocious of "Islamic" laws are being passed to adapt a legal system to a culture whose laws are not centered on the liberty of the individual, but rather the welfare and harmonious co-existence of community."

Strange. I can remember prior to 911 when life in Afghanistan was anything other than "harmonious" and it was ruled with the strictest of Islamic law.

Was nearly everyone who looked at Afghanistan then wrong? Was it really a paradise on earth?

1%?

Are you retarded or are you just mathematically illiterate?

"Strictest of Islamic law"

What crackpipe are you smoking?

<I wonder what the numbers are for the non-reporting countries, such as any Muslim country>

I am not sure. But I know we don't have a multi-billion dollar industry devoted to the production of films featuring our mothers, our daughters, and our sisters having anal sex with dogs while they are being spoon feed the semen of a hundred diffrent men. ;) We leave such civlized endeavors to you ilk bigbill "6999"!

Here's what the CDC web site says about the HPV figures.

My bad! Only 50% of Americans will eventually be STD infected!