Virginity Checks

Has anyone here been subjected to the procedure described below?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12854391

It is totally beyond me why anyone, possibly other than a girl's (I mean GIRL'S, not woman's) parents might care if she was a virgin or not. In neither case is it the business of the government or any religion if a girl or woman is a virgin or not.

Wasn't there a wedding scene in the movie Caligula where he rapes the bride and sodomizes the groom? As I recall he tells the groom that his bride WAS a virgin.

I read another news article on the Egypt virginity checks. The military justified them by stating they were performed to prevent the women from claiming they were raped while in prison! Unbelievable.

^^^^ I don't recall ever seeing Caligula, but I am putting it on my list!

I have heard is it an extremely decadent film. One I should add to my viewing history. 😁

user264:

Regarding virginity checks in Egyptian prisons, doesn't the virginity check just insure that the prison guards only rape women who they know aren't virgins? 😮

In the book 'The Lost Life of Eva Braun' by Angela Lambert (2007), the author describes the practice of giving last year middle school female students a virginity test in interbellum Germany, as part of more or less normal procedure for girls of a certain class. It being expected of them to be be virgins upon marriage.

In present day Europe or the Americas, I would (very hopefully) expect such things to no longer be done except perhaps in odd and marginal religious communities ... and even then ...

Perhaps the odd parent may insist on such a test as well, though in such cases I really would use the word humiliating (instead of embarrassing) to describe the procedure. And I would wonder about any doctor being willing to perform it on request of a parent as well.

I had a friend in high school who said that her parents forced her to see a gynecologist that checked to see if she was a virgin. I was curios and I asked her about it but she wouldn't go into detail.

I don't know if she was telling the truth or not but she seemed pretty upset about it. I couldn't believe that her parents would do that though, she was 16 which should be old enough to have a say over her own body IMO, so this seemed pretty far over the line of personal violation.

Virginity checks should not exist.

Medfetcouple2

My father was going to make me get one when I was 16.He didn't but it was embarassing he would of even said that. I had not done anything yet so it made it worse.When I told my husband about it years later he thought it was one of the sickest things he ever heard of.I had thought it was something parents could do. It gave me issuses for a long time.

Wow didnt know this existed! weird!

I was told it's hard to tell if u use a tampon...

Patient9 said:

[quote author=patient9 link=topic=52718.msg374462#msg374462 date=1312697053]

I was told it's hard to tell if u use a tampon...

[/quote]

I agree with that AND it is hard to tell if the girl is a ferocious masturbator.

The first time I had sex, it slid right in. It was wonderful. 😁 😁 😁 😁 😁

I think these are popular in Islamic countries. I heard that many Muslim mothrrs and fathers will not let their little girls ride bikes so as not to accidentally break the hymen.

I definitely would not pass a virginity check...

I took tumbling and gymnastics at a young age till I was 11yrs old. I slipped just right on the balance beam and ruptured my hymen.

I am very thankful to say that i have not ever experinced this, and think this is very dated and hopefully no longer practised. For one it is not possible to say one way or the other for sure that someone is not a vigin based on examining external genitals only as many things can happen growing up to damage or otherwise break hymen. You can be born without it.

I would certainly never put anyone i know through it

My Dad worked with a woman who took her ?14-15 year old daughter to the emergency room to have a virginity check after staying out all night. She was infuriated that they refused to do it.

I am very thankful to say that i have not ever experinced this, and think this is very dated and hopefully no longer practised. For one it is not possible to say one way or the other for sure that someone is not a vigin based on examining external genitals only as many things can happen growing up to damage or otherwise break hymen. You can be born without it. I would certainly never put anyone i know through it

Exactly mollie - the existence or absence of a hymen is no guide whatsoever as to whether a girl is virgin or not. I use the word 'virgin' in it's commonly accepted sense of not having had sexual intercourse. As you say the hymen might never have existed or it may have been 'broken' by any number of causes. Conversely a girl can have had intercourse which does not tear the hymen.

Then there is the factor that a girl can be virgo intacta, the hymen still being present, whilst not being virgin in the sense of being 'pure', as many religious sects for instance demand. Is a girl who has had anal or oral sex, or masturbated, any more or less of a virgin than her sisters? I don't have a specific view to proffer.

My Dad worked with a woman who took her ?14-15 year old daughter to the emergency room to have a virginity check after staying out all night. She was infuriated that they refused to do it.

Who was at fault for the daughter staying out all night? Was it the girl or her parents? Not the girl, thats for sure! Parents have a responsibility for and to a child, for that child's wellbeing and safety. Children do things, take risks like that, precisely because they are children and have not hitherto been inculcated with the wisdom that parents should have.

The ER staff were quite right to refuse the examination. They should though have landed the parent with a bill for their time and what's more important reported the parents for neglect of a minor!

Ya i was threatened with such an exam, never happened tho

My mon uses to exam my vagina often to check my virginity.

I have done virginity check at a gyno too.

Virginity tests are often required in fanatic religion groups where women are usually considered as things and a girl who is not a virgin before the marriage, is regarded as any second hands goods (especially her parents-in-law take care of that). I think, in civilized world not even the girl's parents can request a check whether their daughter is a virgin or not. That only is her own matter!!

That should be illlegel

I agree Allen.... they should be.

I don't usually like to skew toward the political, but let's not let the "Virginity Check" get into the hands of those on the most right wing of our politics.

If we do, every woman that wants to be married will have to have one these before a wedding license can be issued. Remember, these are the folks that brought us the forced trans vaginal ultra sound legislation.

I think it says it was fabricated as a publicity stunt or way to keep the fighting/tensions up.

Such virginity tests were conducted in the 1950s on "lost girls" (troubled adolescents) entering some industrial boarding schools run by nuns in France.

See http://www.zity.biz/index.php?mx=forum;ox=display;topic=94407;msg=743203

I read around and once floated the matter in a conversation with acquaintances (the topic was the Middle East and I said something like "but haven't these things been done here"). Some woman mention a friend of her, from a bourgeois family, was forced by her mother to go to a gynecological examination after her mother had become concerned she was seeing boys and becoming a "slut". The mother was present during the examination and it was clear she wanted to know whether her girl was deflowered.

In theory, of course, physicians (at least where I live) are prohibited by law from answering such requests. In practice, it seems such things were sometimes done.

In theory, of course, physicians (at least where I live) are prohibited by law from answering such requests. In practice, it seems such things were sometimes done.

As long as the girl is a minor, I suppose parents can have a doctor perform a general examination and then, 'en passant', check the virginity status. very simple to workaround. Parents probably needn't even specifically request a virginity check, just ask for a general (sexual) health assessment, say they have fears of possible STDs.

And if the girl is an adult and still living at home and does comes along, well, in theory, no one can force her to come, so parents can always say she was in agreement.

Btw, I read in several historical biographies, that certainly up until the 1930s in certain European countries, it was not uncommon for boarding school girls, upon graduation, be examined for their virginity status so that (usually nun-run) boarding schools (for the higher classes) could offer proof of virginity and by extension, prove they took good care of the girls. This may not have been a very practice, but it was done nonetheless in some milieus. I have read this in very reputable books by serious historians.

In all seriousness though virginity testing is an abuse on a girls privacy. A forensic examination in suspected abuse is one thing but to assess "virginity" because you want to make sure your daughter or future wife is "pure" is nothing short of utter crap.

It's a practice that quite rightly is outlaws in a lot of developed world.

Besides the evidence to support the theory isn't exactly robust the presence / absence of hymen doesn't equal virgin, sex-o-holic or anywhere between the two.

Ethan: As agracier pointed out, such practices existed in "Western" countries under various pretexts. I suspect, for instance, that the nuns checking the girls' virginity at admission to "reformatories" for troubled adolescent girls did not have a legal mandate to do so. I suppose that this was officially disguised as a general medical check-up, including for STDs and also for forensic purposes. What could the girls say? It's not like they could sue or anything.

The same if a 15 year old is dragged by her mother to a gynecologist for health/STD assessment. The mother says the girl is irresponsible and may have had unprotected sex. Nobody will attest in writing that this was a "virginity check" - it's a parent worried about possible disease and risky behaviour.

Agracier: It is rumoured that Diana Spencer had to undertake a gynecological examination before wedding Prince Charles and that this included a virginity check. One criterion was that the bride should be a virgin...

Again this may have been disguised as a medical check-up to see whether she would be able to bear children.

Pecan: In this country if a gynecologist is confronted with a 15 year old and a pushy mom the exam won't go ahead with out the person in questions consent. I would imagine they would even ask to speak with the girl alone. I agree that there were bad practices like at convents etc but certainly not today well here anyway.

Also a nun can not tell if a person is a virgin or not simply by looking that their vaginal opening/ hymen or lack there of.