To ban or not to ban? France debates virginity tests

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - France is split over plans to ban virginity testing, with some campaigners calling the procedure barbaric and others warning of violent repercussions for some Muslim women.

Women in at least 20 countries are subjected to virginity tests, sometimes by force, as families, lovers or potential employers use them to assess their virtue, honour or social value, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In Europe, the tests are issued in Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, Sweden and Spain, according to the WHO. In France, it is most commonly used by Muslims and also by some Roma families who want proof of virginity prewedlock. The United Nations says the test is painful, inaccurate and a violation of human rights, with no place in modern society. But not everyone agrees, with some experts predicting unintended fallout from France’s proposed ban, which is part of a wider Islamic separatism bill due in parliament next month.

Doctors say it could mean women paying excessive fees for illegal tests or risking violent repercussions from family members, partners or putative in-laws if they lack proof.

“Penalising doctors is to close the only door for patients, where they could have found help and advice,” said Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, a gynaecologist in Paris and chief medic at the Maison des

Femmes, a local women’s violence shelter.

“It is undoubtedly promoting a black market for certificates that dubious pharmacies will charge dearly for,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Before issuing a virginity certificate, a doctor usually inspects a woman’s hymen – the thin tissue that may partially cover her vagina – checking for tears or measuring the opening.

It is not clear how many tests are carried out each year, but doctors say they mostly check teenaged girls or young women, often under family pressure.

“There is no data, either official or unofficial, on the number of requests for virginity certificates,” said Martine

Hatchuel, another Paris-based gynaecologist.

“Personally I have around two to four requests per year…almost always very young girls brought by their mothers.”

Doctors say single women fear rejection if they cannot show a certificate to families where traditional gender expectations hold sway when it comes to sex before marriage.

“Their motivation is always: ‘it is my parents/my step family/my in-laws who demand it, if it were up to me I wouldn’t ask for anything,’” said Hatem-Gantzer.

But she said the girls and young women who came to her were unanimous in declaring: “‘I don’t want to stay an old maid.’”