What are hymenoplasty and virginity testing?
Virginity testing is ‘inspecting’ a woman’s vagina in the false belief that it can determine whether or not she has had sex. Having a hymen that is intact is still thought to be a way to tell if a woman is a virgin. This thinking is flawed since a woman’s hymen may be broken in a number of ways that have nothing to do with sex: vigorous exercise, bike riding, gymnastics, horse riding, or simply using tampons. Some women are also born without a hymen. Years of research have dispelled the myth that the hymen breaks after a woman has sex for the first time. Yet its power remains.
Hymenoplasty is ‘repairing’ a broken hymen surgically. While the practise of hymenoplasty isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s only in recent years that such surgery has increased in the UK. An investigation conducted by The Sunday Times uncovered a minimum of 22 clinics offering hymenoplasty in London alone. Many patients also travel in from abroad. The procedure costs up to £4,000 and consists of a 45-minute appointment under local anaesthetic. The surgeon ‘pulls’ the layers of skin together before re-stitching them.
Why are hymenoplasty and virginity testing happening in the UK today?
“An indoctrinated belief in Muslim communities is that women should be virgins when marrying their husbands. If it’s found that a woman has lost her virginity before marriage, the consequences can be dire,” says Halaleh Taheri. At best she risks humiliation and embarrassment from her family, her husband or fiancé and his family, and the wider community. It can lead to relationship breakdowns and women being disowned. At worst, women can be victims of honour-based violence at the hands of male relatives.
An even more pressing issue, Halaleh argues, is banning the practice of virginity tests. This procedure is still legal in the UK and America. “Women are being forced by their families and their fiancé’s families to provide a certificate of virginity from their doctors before their wedding day,” she says. “If we were to help educate our communities and to reverse this belief, then there would be no need for hymen reconstruction. It would go out of business on its own.”
How is MEWSo campaigning for change?
MEWSo’s Hymenoplasty Matters campaign aims to educate communities and schools around the myths and dangers of these deep-rooted misogynistic customs. “Just because a law or ban is in place doesn’t mean that its effects will reach the people who need to hear it most,” says Halaleh. “The problem is that if our government creates a law, smaller communities who are not familiar with the law only listen to their community leaders. These figures usually only share practises relating to their own faith. The government should recognise this and communicate with these communities. They should treat them as equally as they treat English communities.”
“Banning these procedures, without educating those most vulnerable, will only push them underground, putting more women at risk.”
What is MEWSo asking the government?
MEWSo wants the Department of Education to make sex education a mandatory part of the school curriculum to eradicate these archaic notions of virginity for future generations. “UK laws and regulations should be implemented on all communities in the UK. The emphasis should be on protecting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women women, who are the most vulnerable in our society. At the moment, many women are left at the hands of community faith leaders and their barbaric customs. We hope our actions will bring us a step closer to living in a society of equality, diversity, and compassion.”
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