France: Ten stitches that can save a life

French plastic surgeons offer a new intact hymen to women who need to prove their virginity for marriage, social or religious reasons. The operation, conducted for outpatients in some private clinics, is just a cut and ten stitches, costing half an hour and two to three thousand Dollar. But for most of the clients, it opens a new life.

The French College of Gynecologists opposes hymenoplasty – quite cynically - “on moral, cultural and health grounds”. But the demand for it is growing fast and it is practiced in many private clinics. France has a Muslim population of five million. Among the clientele are foreign students, who would – despite academic certificates - not be able to return to their homeland without an intact hymen. It is not just a marriage commodity – their very lives depend on it. In two cases that have been recently reported from Egypt, men have killed their brides on the wedding night because they could not deflower them (in one of the cases post mortem proved that the murder was an “error” - the victim had in fact been a virgin). In many Muslim countries, women are being killed or cruelly punished by their fathers and brothers, if they stain the “family honour” with pre-marital sexual experience. But also French Muslim women of foreign origin are suffering pressure and harassment from their traditional families and communities. Caught between two worlds – the liberal European society and the deeply religious and restrictive society of their families - this operation is for many the last escape route.

[Bulletin #177]