NHS hymen repairs

The other day, Vanessa Feltz brought up the issue of the NHS offering hymen repairs to women of certain ethnic origins who need to appear to be virgins on their wedding night. Apparently, according to recent news reports ([1], [2]), for some women failing to bleed on their wedding night can have lethal repercussions as it is automatically assumed that they had slept around. Naturally, among the callers were people linking this to “fundamentalism”, although one caller said she had heard of the “hanging out the sheets” business through family connections in Greece.

The problem is that this has nothing to do with fundamentalism and everything to do with culture. The fact is that Islamic law does not allow for people to accuse a woman of any previous illicit sex just because she does not bleed, because there are other causes for a broken hymen, such as a lot of physical activity ([1], [2], [3]); some scholars say that this operation is forbidden. The issue of where this leaves rape victims is therefore irrelevant, because it does not indicate sexual activity, consensual or otherwise. My first thought on hearing this was that not only should it not be available on the NHS, the procedure should be banned altogether.

However, the Channel 4 report quotes a campaigner for Kurdish and Iranian women’s rights saying that the operation, which was performed 24 times on the NHS from 2005 to 2006, should be available more widely as it would prevent many honour killings. North African grooms are also alleged to be demanding virginity certificates from their brides. In the latter case, surely a bit of Islamic education is the answer? I don’t know what the women out there think, but I don’t believe that indulging this ignorance is a good use of NHS funds.