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Like a Virgin: Hymenoplasty and ‘Urfi marriage in Egypt
Abstract
In Egypt, young women are rumored to seek surgical reparation of the hymen before marriage to disguise evidence of premarital sexual activity (a procedure called “hymenoplasty” or “hymenorraphy” by doctors). The notion that women are using surgery to hide past sexual activity from future husbands is deeply frowned upon by many Egyptians, and many physicians believe that it is both religiously proscribed (har?m) as well as illegal and unethical. In spite of these beliefs, several of the country’s high ranking jurisprudence experts, including the Grand Mufti of D?r al-Ift?', have ruled hymenoplasty permissible under certain circumstances, and contrary to popular belief (and published sources, including The Lancet), there is no law against it, nor does it contravene the ethics code of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. Based on primary research conducted between 2008 and 2010, including ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with women, physicians, and clerics, this paper presents the case study of Sara, a working class woman who had previously been secretly married (`urfi) and subsequently divorced, and her attempt to obtain hymenoplasty to hide this socially unsanctioned marriage before marrying again. This case study reveals that it is not only the never-married who feel pressured to demonstrate the token blood of “virginity.” The paper situates Sara’s case in the broader context of Egyptian media debates about the religious permissibility of hymenoplasty, Cairo physicians’ beliefs about the medical ethics of this surgery, and Egyptian cultural anxieties about changing patterns of sexuality and marriage, including `urfi marriages. The existing scholarship on hymenoplasty is scant and has largely focused on the medical ethics of hymen “reconstruction” in Western countries (e.g. Cook and Dickens 2009; Saharso 2003) and, to a lesser extent, on debating whether Islamic jurisprudence rulings on hymenoplasty are “patriarchal” or not (Eich 2010). In contrast, this paper explores rulings for and against hymenoplasty by Egyptian and international Islamic jurisprudence experts, as well as the justifications offered by doctors who secretly perform the operation but publicly condemn it, to argue that the key issue being debated by physicians and religious scholars in Egypt is less about proof of virginity and more about the role of doctors can and should play in mediating the relationship between women, their future spouses, and God.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
None