Virginity for Sale

In many societies, and especially among Muslims, women are supposed to be virgins until the day they get married. This issue has come to the forefront in a case in France where a groom, on his wedding night, found out that his bride was not a virgin.

Upon discovering the truth he left the bedroom and reported to the wedding guests, who were still partying, that his bride had lied to him about being a virgin. That very night the bride was delivered to her parents' doorstep and the next morning he consulted a lawyer about having the marriage annulled. The court granted him the annulment. This has prompted a furious debate in France, with the government requesting that the case be appealed against the wishes of the couple. For complete details click here.

If the unfortunate bride had only known that a simple 30-minute procedure called a hymenoplasty was available for about $2,900, she may well have saved her marriage and her honor. The procedure has become popular with an increasing number of Muslim women in Europe.

For a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, this procedure represented the key to a new life: the illusion of virginity.

“In my culture, not to be a virgin is to be dirt,” said the student, perched on a hospital bed as she awaited surgery. “Right now, virginity is more important to me than life.”

Hymenoplasty is the restoration of the hymen, the thin vaginal membrane that normally breaks during the first act of intercourse. Gynecologists report that in the past few years, more Muslim women are asking for certificates of virginity. That in turn has created a demand among cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacements, which, if done properly, they say, will not be detected and will produce tell-tale vaginal bleeding on the wedding night.

“If you’re a Muslim woman growing up in more open societies in Europe, you can easily end up having sex before marriage,” said Dr. Hicham Mouallem, who is based in London and performs the operation. “So if you’re looking to marry a Muslim and don’t want to have problems, you’ll try to recapture your virginity.”

Even though the hymen can be ruptured by non-sexual means, an intact hymen is an indicator of virginity in many cultures.

The popularity of hymenoplasty is fueled by the reality of living in a secular society where sex before marriage is not uncommon and the traditional, cultural values that expect a bride to be a virgin. It is a way for young women who have hopes of being married to satisfy their partners and their families expectations. Those who perform the procedure say they are empowering patients by giving them a viable future and preventing them from being abused — or even killed — by their fathers or brothers.

In the case of the 23-year-old French student from Montpellier, she insists that she is still a virgin and discovered her hymen was torn only when she tried to obtain a certificate of virginity to present to her boyfriend and his family. She believes it may have been torn in an accident on a horse when she was 10 years old which caused some bleeding. However, the trauma from realizing that she could not prove her virginity was so intense, she said, that she quietly borrowed money to pay for the procedure.

“Who am I to judge?” asked Dr. Marc Abecassis, who restored the Montpellier student’s hymen. “I have colleagues in the United States whose patients do this as a Valentine’s present to their husbands. What I do is different. This is not for amusement. My patients don’t have a choice if they want to find serenity — and husbands.”

For those who would rather not go through the embarrassment or expense of seeing a plastic surgeon, there is an alternative. There is the "Jade Lady Membrane Man-Made Hymen" manufactured by Wan Li Hong Corporation in China. The contraption, as described on the Portland Mercury website, is:

"Basically a plug filled with powdered glue that seals the vagina in as little as 20 minutes prior to penile insertion. When the powders mix with female secretions, they not only create a puncture barrier, but also discharge a blood-like fluid to convince the most 'jaded' male vaginal conqueror." Since penetration will be painless, users are encouraged to increase the product's efficacy by "accompanying its rupture with the moans and groans that typically accompany the rupture of a real hymen."

What will they think of next!?!? :)

Isolated Tribe Photographed

It may be a surprise to learn that there are many communities which have never been contacted by the "civilized" world. One such group has been photographed by Survival International, a human rights organization formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples.

Aerial pictures were taken from a low-flying aircraft during several flights over one of the remotest parts of the Amazon rain forest. It is a remote region in the Terra Indigena Kampa e Isolados do Envira, Acre state, Brazil, close to the border with Peru. The photos show a group of native Indians and their dwellings. These are people who have never had any contact with the outside world. In one of the pictures two men, covered in red paint, are pointing their bow and arrows at the overhead aircraft while another person, painted in black, looks on behind them.

José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, who works for FUNAI, the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department, said they first encountered the group on a morning flight earlier this month and saw dozens of people dotted around a clearing with two communal huts. When they returned later the same day, the impact of the earlier flight was clear. Most of the women and children had fled into the forest, he said, and those that were left had painted their bodies, taken up arms and appeared to be on a "war footing".

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," said Meirelles, an expert on the remote tribal people who live beyond the boundaries of the modern world. "This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

Peru's President, Alan Garcia, has openly questioned the existence of uncontacted tribes. In Peru similar tribes are being driven from their lands by aggressive oil and mining interests and illegal loggers.

"What is happening in this region [of Peru] is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna, and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," said Mr Meirelles.

After a decades-long political battle, indigenous groups now have their land rights protected under Brazilian law. Survival International is leading calls for Peru to act in accordance with international law and protect the tribes on its territory. Survival's Fiona Watson, who recently returned from the region, said that Indians fleeing over the border into Brazil could be driven into conflict with uncontacted tribes already living there. "It is clear from this photograph that they want to be left alone," she said.

Nothing is known about these people. Their extraordinary body paint, precisely what they eat, how they construct their tent-like camp, their language, how their society operates, how they wear their hair, how they adorn their bodies, how they live their lives - it is all a mystery. Uncontacted tribes, which are located in the jungles of South America, New Guinea and North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean (the inhabitants of which have also responded to attempts at contact with extreme aggression) all have one thing in common - they want to be left alone.

The history of contact, between indigenous tribes and the outside world, has always been an unhappy one. They have always been threatened by outsiders who, for various reasons, want to control their land and are often willing to kill for what they want. Even just coming into contact can be deadly. Many tribes have been wiped out by diseases, like the common cold, for which they have no resistance.

According to Miriam Ross of Survival International:

"These tribes represent the incredible diversity of humankind. Unless we want to condemn yet more of the earth's peoples to extinction, we must respect their choice. Any contact they have with outsiders must happen in their own time and on their own terms." Ms Ross added, "These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist. The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct."

11 Witches Killed in Kenya

A group of up to 300 young men killed 11 people, aged between 80 and 96, who were accused of being witches and wizards in the western Kenya villages of Kekoro and Matembe. The gang moved from home to home through the two villages, using a list of suspected witches and wizards and the kind of spells they were believed to have cast on the community, said Ben Makori, a local councilor.

"The villagers are complaining that the (suspected) wizards and witches are making the bright children in the community dumb ... These (suspected) witches are not doing good things to us," Makori told The Associated Press.

In some cases the gang slit their throats or clubbed them to death before burning their bodies. The victims were then thrown back into the homes that the gang already had set on fire. About 30 houses were torched.

Ndirangu, the commissioner in charge of Kisii Central district where one of the villages is located, said that residents are superstitious and have often targeted suspected witches and wizards. But this week's attack was the most shocking in recent years, Ndirangu said.

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Police chief Kibuchi, said the villagers had recounted holding a meeting in Nyakeo earlier on Tuesday to try and dissuade those who wanted to go ahead with the killing. Five of the victims had supposedly "confessed" at this meeting to practicing witchcraft and had begged for mercy, he said.

Police said on Thursday they had jailed 19 people suspected of burning to death the 11 people. A police spokesman, Charles Owino, told the BBC that those arrested may not have been involved in the killings but possibly incited the attacks.

"You may find that they could not have been involved directly in the killing, but if you have evidence that they were involved in war cries, then they will have another offence of inciting," he said, adding that those proven to have been involved in the attack would be charged with murder.

Despite the peaceful co-existence of traditional African beliefs, Christians and Muslims in Kenya, there is widespread suspicion of sorcery, particularly in the west, which has a long history of witch doctors and faith healers. Residents have been ambivalent about condemning the attacks because the belief in witchcraft is so widespread in the area. Kenyan Lecturer Ken Ouko discusses the murders and talks about the place of witchcraft in Kenyan culture in the following video.

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To learn more about the people and culture of the Kisii Central District in southwestern Kenya, check out their website here.