The Virginity Scandal

By Halaleh Taheri, Founder and Executive Director of MEWSo (Middle Eastern Women & Society Organisation)

For those of you who don’t know, virginity tests still go on… the intimate, internal examination of a girl or woman’s vagina that, in truth, can not categorically prove that she is or is not a virgin.

The test is founded on the bogus science that a broken hymen means a woman has had sex. But hymens are broken in so many different ways that have nothing to do with sex and it’s been proven in a study of pregnant teenagers that hymens can remain intact even after sex has taken place.

So, in the 21st century, millions of women and girls continue to be subjected to this degrading examination before they can marry. And, the dread and fear of a potential broken hymen is what drives thousands of these women to seek out surgery that can ‘re-stitch’ their hymen.

Ticking this ‘virginity’ box is all that matters within certain conservative communities with ingrained medieval traditions and cultural attitudes that refuse to modernise. If that box is not ticked the consequences for the girl or woman can be very serious - violence, sexual assault, banishment, or worse, death!

But we live in a country where the human rights of women and girls should be protected,  whatever their cultural background.

To break this cycle we need:

• A law to make virginity tests and hymen repair surgery illegal,

• Education of the communities most affected, and

• Services to protect women and girls who refuse to submit

Thankfully, after much campaigning and lobbying, the Health and Care Bill, currently going through Parliament, bans both virginity tests and hymen repair surgeries. Once passed, anyone involved in women and girls having to take a virginity test or get hymen reconstruction, will be committing a criminal offence and can be fined or sent to jail.

Also, in recent discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care, MEWSo and others explained how best to tackle educating communities. We asked for resources so community organisations can properly engage and educate communities where the practice is ingrained; for the subject to be added to schools’ sex education curriculum for boys and girls; and for a media campaign to educate the general public, so no one is missed.

And thirdly, on this triangle of measures, we need the statutory agencies - doctors, nurses, teachers, schools, social services, the police, etc. - to be made aware of these issues and able to properly protect women and girls in danger of being seriously harmed.

It is with much relief therefore that we can announce that the coalition fighting virginity tests and hymen surgeries, including MEWSo, has been given the opportunity to run a pilot project - a series of workshops educating practitioners, professionals and others on how best to recognise and support girls struggling in this area.

Women and girls can no longer put up with such medieval practices and barbaric attitudes, just because it is part of one’s culture. We need to recognise this as another form of domestic abuse. We need to change the language we use and we have to encourage women and girls to speak more openly about sex and sexual relations.

Over 100 years ago British women couldn't vote. Forty years ago a single women couldn't get a mortgage by herself, even if she had the money. Thirty years ago a man could still legally rape his wife! 

Things change. They must! And attitudes, laws and cultural practises must change too, if we are not to be tied to the brutalities of the past forever.