The virginity industry
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HOT AND BOTHERED OVER FAKE HYMENS
By Mona Eltahawy
Metro Canada
Oct. 23, 2009Proving one more time that when it comes to Muslim women, it?s about headscarves and hymens ? in other words, what?s on our heads and what?s between our legs ? Egypt is hot and bothered over a Chinese device that fakes female virginity.
It?s reportedly available in Syria for $15 but nobody knows if the gizmo called Gigimo is on sale in Egypt yet. Just the mere thought of a device, which is said to release liquid imitating blood, allowing a woman to fake virginity on her wedding night, has driven some conservatives crazy.
One Egyptian Muslim scholar even went so far as to say that people caught importing the virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty and the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition bloc in parliament, want the kit banned on grounds it will encourage promiscuity.
The conservatives are not content that their ideology has put headscarves on the heads of 80 per cent of Egyptian women. Now it?s the horror of uncertainty about that ?good girl? they marry.
With all the troubles Egypt faces these days ? spiralling cost of living, a president in power for 28 years whose son looks likely to succeed him, etc. ? why all the fuss over hymens, real or fake?
Welcome to the hypocrisy and denial that together drum at the heart of conservative religious views on women and chastity. And in the case of Egypt, that conservatism applies equally to Muslims and Christians.
As a Muslim, I know the Qur?an preaches chastity for men and women, but the conservative obsession with women means only females are expected to abide by the prohibition on extramarital sex. This obsession with virginity is shallow at best and deadly at worst.
And it?s built on a lie ? people in Egypt are having sex outside of marriage, as they do everywhere. Hymen reconstruction surgery was an option for sexually active women who could afford it.
In less affluent and more rural areas, women have used body parts of animals for blood on the sheets. Now the Gigimo provides a cheaper, cleaner and non-surgical prop to maintain the lie that many men still want to believe.
Truth be told, it?s unlikely Egyptian women will flock to the Gigimo. But it?s been worth it just to watch male hysteria as the made-in-China hymens threatened to smash their virginity god.
http//www.monaeltahawy.com/blog/?p=188
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Are you saying that sex before marriage is from past and we shouldn't punish her ? It is Zania in religion the punishment is lashing her and traditions will not lashe her but it will make her suffer by no one accepts her .
And by the way men are now aware of the plastic surgery of the hymens of in the organs of women and they know the difference . as the proverb says
Yes...
You want to lash without evidence? Then swear by the quran that you believe in that. Swear 5 times and may the god's chastisment be on you.
Quran 243-9
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yeh can you imagine people with traditional/cultural mindset they'd think shes unchaste S
Half the bloody men and women in Cairo are unchaste. Quran 243 refers to them. They can have each other.
If only their fathers did not believe in "we shouldn't get our daughters married now, they are young, old men? Yuck."
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Half the bloody men and women in Cairo are unchaste. Quran 243 refers to them. They can have each other.
If only their fathers did not believe in "we shouldn't get our daughters married now, they are young, old men? Yuck."
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What on earth are you on about? Hymen issues aren't just a Cairo issue, and hymen doesnt mean one is or isnt unchaste.
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Peace Far
Just curious. How do you know that half of men and women in Cairo are unchaste ?
Err... http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4708461.stm
Apparently Far has been a busy lad..
Yes, I've been busy being chaste.
What on earth are you on about? Hymen issues aren't just a Cairo issue, and hymen doesnt mean one is or isnt unchaste.
Well obviously those women aren't referring to hymen issues.
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Err... http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4708461.stm
Yes, I've been busy being chaste.Well obviously those women aren't referring to hymen issues.well, i was and you quoted me.
Why do you think people are resulting to sex before marriage? why do you think the "virginity industry" is a growing industry?
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People are emotionally insecure in a world they are too lazy to understand, and so look for the most easily obtainable emotional connection and physical gratification they can find, in form of casual sex. They view the consequences - hurting the partner they have no respect for when they leave them - as either irrelevant or desirable, as hurting others makes them feel strong and self assured.
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In relation to the original post, I don't know how to feel about this personally. I gravitate towards the opinion that this kind of dishonesty is plain disgusting but I'm well aware than many men will tell the same lie. How about if you feel that there is something wrong about sex before marriage, just don't do it?
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well, i was and you quoted me.
Why do you think people are resulting to sex before marriage? why do you think the "virginity industry" is a growing industry?
People are resulted to sex before marriage for certain reasons
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Junk food.
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Women being forbidden to marry unless they were older than 18-20, and even then forced to wait because of this poor education systems that are in place.
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Men who aren't taught how to treat their wives according to the quran and women who don't know what to do in regards to men who do wrong. This also results in many ex-muslims.
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Women prevented from learning about sex and the male condition.
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Marriage processes being restricted by cultural norms of expensive weddings and parents getting into the idea of they are gods supreme.
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Movies and films and other such fiction promoting love and romance before marriage. The quran makes it clear that it's forbidden to jump into and enjoy falsehood.
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Push towards secular european traditions since the 1900s.
Number 2 & 3 are the biggest reason. But ultimately it's a lack of quranic education at the end of the day.
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In relation to the original post, I don't know how to feel about this personally. I gravitate towards the opinion that this kind of dishonesty is plain disgusting but I'm well aware than many men will tell the same lie. How about if you feel that there is something wrong about sex before marriage, just don't do it?
Wouldn't the anti-circumcision band wagon hark against this? Isn't it against the quran to chance what allah has made? But of course losing virginity, in a sin... of course is not of allah's making but our own.
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People are resulted to sex before marriage for certain reasons
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Junk food.
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Women being forbidden to marry unless they were older than 18-20, and even then forced to wait because of this poor education systems that are in place.
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Men who aren't taught how to treat their wives according to the quran and women who don't know what to do in regards to men who do wrong. This also results in many ex-muslims.
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Women prevented from learning about sex and the male condition.
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Marriage processes being restricted by cultural norms of expensive weddings and parents getting into the idea of they are gods supreme.
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Movies and films and other such fiction promoting love and romance before marriage. The quran makes it clear that it's forbidden to jump into and enjoy falsehood.
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Push towards secular european traditions since the 1900s.
Number 2 & 3 are the biggest reason. But ultimately it's a lack of quranic education at the end of the day.
You have some valid points. so with this reasoning do you think society has a role to play in educating people?
you put emphasis on lack of quranic education.. don't you think it's people's obligation to obtain that education if they believe in that system?
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I am baffled about how junk food comes into this! Likewise, I don't think the term "the male condition" is specific enough to understand - you mean our desire for sex?
I agree about the problem of weddings being too expensive and films glamorising casual sex. However, when it comes to love and romance, these are important otherwise educated women able to earn a living independently won't want to get married at all.
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You have some valid points. so with this reasoning do you think society has a role to play in educating people?
you put emphasis on lack of quranic education.. don't you think it's people's obligation to obtain that education if they believe in that system?
Everyone is part of society, everyone has a responsibility once they're part of that society. The society is as they make it.
As for people's obligation for education... it's our duty as those who focus on teaching the quran, and remind people what it says, the meanings, the opinions (including ours). Allah has given us the strength to concentrate on the quran and think "oh maybe we should focus on it for a bit"... quran 3104. Other people of course have their strengths given to them by the god and they shall of course not be stingy as according to quran 4738, and neither shall we, otherwise the god will replace you and I and us with another people. And I don't want to be replaced by those atheists or christians or quran haters.
I am baffled about how junk food comes into this! Likewise, I don't think the term "the male condition" is specific enough to understand - you mean our desire for sex?
I agree about the problem of weddings being too expensive and films glamorising casual sex. However, when it comes to love and romance, these are important otherwise educated women able to earn a living independently won't want to get married at all.
Junk food comes into it ... well we'd have to look at junk food being kiddy forms of alcohol and intoxication. Note post 50s children growing to love adult drugs, sex and rock and roll. Never did a population experience such mass production of junk did they advance to the drugs they did and the sex that satisfied the desires that coke and what not couldn't.
http//www.youtube.com/user/faro0485#p/f/18/pkht3noIK0E -- Woman explains how junk food re-introduced to the family pushed the family apart a bit.
Are you trying to crack a joke with that love and romance education from TV??? From falsehood fiction??? Don't you know how many times in the quran allah condemns falsehood?
Educated women should have been well educated before they became women, and when they become women, they can learn from their peers who would get them married to an older experienced man. And the same for young men.
If those kids in mosques learning quran knew a thing about what they were learning, as they were learning... they'd all be well educated by the time they became 13. And they'd be masters of quran by the time they became 16. If they want to learn about romance... they can study romance and love techniques from many true sources. Not that which is fiction.
It's bad enough people don't like hadith here... that some would suggest we should look at obviously well known false hadith (fiction media/films/books).
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Educated women should have been well educated before they became women, and when they become women, they can learn from their peers who would get them married to an older experienced man.
Stop telling women what they should and shouldn't do in your opinion.
I'm a well-educated, independent woman, I don't need my peers to get me married to an "older, experienced man", thankyouverymuch. http//img337.imageshack.us/img337/3135/iconconfused.gif