Virginity Tests Violate Egypitan Women

In the Middle Ages a woman's worth was bound to her sexual virtue.  Virginity was not merely a physical condition, it was a spiritual constitution that symbolized purity and wholesomeness.  Virginity was not just a bargaining chip with which to secure a husband, it was absolutely expected in a future wife. Virginity was complexly idealized, signifying not only a clean soul and body, but also moral supremacy and all of the gendered expectations that fell upon anyone who had the great misfortune to be born into the lesser sex.

A woman whose virtue fell under scrutiny would be made to suffer the consequences, regardless of the truth of accusations of sexual impurity.  Women were subjected to humiliating and frightening virginity tests to prove their worth and purity of both body and spirit.  More often than not even ladies of the highest quality, women whose virtue was never under question, were forced to undergo such testing.  These virginity tests were deplorably common practice.

There were numerous ways to test a woman's virginity.  Her urine was often examined for clearness as a virgin's urine was believed to be pure and sparkling.  Sometimes she was stripped and physicians examined her breasts to see which way her nipples pointed--a virgin's nipples would, of course, point up!  Then there was the hymen test, which was considered more risque and was less frequently utilized--not because having a stranger shove their finger into a very private place would be horrifying to the woman in question but because you wouldn't want that finger to accidentally damage the hymen should she prove virginal.  The most common proof of virginity was simply a brutish display of bloodied bed sheets following the husband's sexual claiming of his virginal bride on the wedding night. 

Obviously we are well above and beyond such barbaric acts!  Surely our world has progressed enough to prize women for more than just their virginity.  No one would seek to subject modern women to such abominable tests, would they?

Unfortunately, some men would.  Some men already have. 

At least seven women in Egypt were subjected to so-called virginity tests by the military following their arrests for protesting in Tahir Square on March 9, 2011. 

Samira Ibrahim, the 25 year old marketing manager who first filed papers to take the government to court for conducting these tests, tells  The Guardian, ""The military tortured me, labelled me a prostitute and humiliated me by forcing on me a virginity test conducted by a male doctor where my body was fully exposed while military soldiers watched.""

Ibrahim says she was taken into a room where she was forced by a woman to strip naked and lie on a table while a man wearing military colors examined her for five minutes to determine the status of her virginity and while other men watched and laughed.  

In a video posted to YouTube she weeps as she describes her ordeal in graphic detail.  She says, "We wished we were dead," of herself and the other women degraded by the military on that horrific day. 

Samira Ibrahim says there were 16 women present that day, 16 women who were likely subjected to such degradation.  Only 7 of these women came forward to bring these atrocities before the Egyptian courts.

Recently an Egyptian court ruled in favor of Ibrahim and the over 6 women who brought this issue before the legal system.  Aly Fekry, the judge over the case, ruled that such testing was illegal  and it is now possible that these 7 women could receive financial compensation for pain and suffering. 

Ibrahim, however, says she feels as if she were raped.

No amount of money could possibly take away the pain and humiliation dealt to these women.

You can hear Ibrahim's story in the following video (click cc to see English captions):