Virginity Restoration

Once lost, virginity can never really be replaced; however, modern medicine now offers women a nearly perfect physical simulation of their lost innocence.

• Hymenoplasty, the surgical reconstruction of the hymen broken during a women's first experience of intercourse; or, increasingly, during demanding exercise, or as a result of a collision or fall by women who have never had sex, has prompted a growing number of young betrothed women in France to make a last-ditch attempt to avoid the humiliation, repudiation, and possibly violence that could result from husbands and families discovering that their wedding night had not been their first sexual experience.
• Hymenoplasty has generated renewed attention in France because of a court ruling in the northern city of Lille, which annulled a marriage on the basis of a husband's complaint that his wife had falsely promised that she was a virgin.
• Although the decision made no mention of religion, the fact that the couple were Muslim sparked complaints that France's strictly secular state is being undermined by traditional Arab cultural strictures.
• The court ruling also infuriated feminists, who saw its acceptance of prior sexual experience as grounds for annulment as similar to treating marriage as the equivalent of a commercial transaction "in which the buyer had discovered a hidden flaw in his purchase.
• Even though an appeal by France's Justice Ministry resulted in the Lille ruling being overturned, the storm it provoked has focused media attention on young Muslim women who turn to hymenoplasty to avoid the fate of the repudiated Lille bride.
• Although the overturning of the Lille verdict removed the risk non-virgin Muslim brides could find themselves dragged to court on fraud charges by infuriated husbands, the cultural pressures some face remain sufficiently great that many will continue turning to hymenoplasty to restore their semblance of chastity.