Iraqi women face court-ordered virginity tests

[PrinceDaadi]

Iraqi women face court-ordered virginity tests that often show they were virgins until marriage but shame them nonetheless, doctors at an institute that carries out the tests and a lawyer told AFP.

Remaining a virgin until marriage can be an issue of life or death for women in the Middle East, where those who are seen as having dishonoured the family by having premarital sex are sometimes killed by male relatives.

An average of several virginity tests are performed per day at the Medical Legal Institute (MLI) in Baghdad, in a small windowless room with blue-tiled walls and a black table with leg stirrups at one end.

Marriage day

Other equipment include a white scope on a wheeled stand and a bright white light, also on wheels, near the end of the table.

“Most of the cases we received after the first day of marriage,” said Dr Munjid al-Rezali, the director of the MLI.

“The husband claim that she is not a virgin, and then the family bring her here, through the courts, this all come through the courts, and we examine her,” Rezali said, speaking in English.

The tests include examination of the woman’s hymen. The man may be tested for impotency, Rezali said, noting that in some cases, a man with erectile dysfunction may pretend the woman was not a virgin to hide his shame.

The results of the tests go directly to the courts, and are not given to the parties involved, Rezali said.


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Guys, what do u think?

[nomadicwarlord]

American troops should have stayed longer I guess. The backward mentality still prevails