Muslim Brides Undergoing Painful Vaginal Surgery to 'Re-virginize' for Wedding NightsThere's more of the story at the link above, including how this "surgically-reconstructed virginity" is gaining in popularity among Muslim women.Monday, December 17, 2007
On her wedding night, Aisha Salim will hand her blooded sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity, according to a story in The Daily Telegraph of Australia.
But there’s one problem. Being a modern English university graduate, she is far from the traditional untouched Muslim bride.
Like most woman her age, Salim has smoked, drank, had sex and even lived with one of her past boyfriends.
However, if the devout Muslim family of her soon-to-be husband – or even her own family – knew this, she could be murdered.
Aisha has opted to have her virginity surgically restored in a delicate but painful surgery called hymenoplasties -- where the hymen is re-created from the already torn tissue, or a new membrane is inserted.
"If my husband cannot prove to his family that I am a virgin, I would be hounded, ostracised and sent home in disgrace,” Salim told England’s Daily Mail.
“My father, who is a devout Muslim, would regard it as the ultimate shame. The entire family could be cast out from the friends and society they hold dear, and I honestly believe that one of my fanatically religious cousins or uncles might kill me in revenge, to purge them of my sins. Incredible as it may seem, honour killings are still accepted within our religion.
"Ever since my family arranged this marriage for me, I've been terrified that, on my wedding night, my secret would come out. It has only been since my surgery last week that I've actually been able to sleep properly. Now, I can look forward to my marriage."
So much that could be said about this...
Fer starters, there is something very, very wrong with the expectation that a new bride "hand her blooded sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity" on her wedding night. Just plain ewwwww, man.
But what if the woman in question is indeed a virgin but already has a torn hymen? There are several cases of women who have no more hymen because they were lost during activities like gymnastics and horseback riding. Some women have even been found to have been born with little or no hymen at all, meaning that there isn't much to reconstruct from.
But most of all, I have to wonder how much sincere love there is for this woman from her family: from her own as well as the one she's marrying into. Love is supposed to be many things, and forgiving is among the most important. Even forgiving things like "loss of virtue".
That a religion would deem it acceptable to kill a person like Aisha (I'm pretty sure that's not her real name) cries volumes about what this supposed "faith" holds sacred. The whole point of most religion at all - and I'm not gonna try to use this to get into a "my faith is better than your faith" thing, 'cuz that's not the point of it - is to reconcile one's soul with something that's higher than man, because we have to realize that whatever perfection there is, we do fall short of it. Way short. And there's nothing on Earth that we can do on our own to make ourselves justified to that perfection.
A "faith" that does not acknowledge this and appreciates the need for grace, is not a real faith at all.
It is also sad that Aisha does not seem able to break away from this religion. She only adheres to it because she's expected to. She believes she has no choice.
But there is always a choice and each of us can make it, if we want to.
1 comments:
That's pretty sad. And can I just say OUCH! I bet that surgery does hurt. Lol
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