A 19-year-old Moroccan student in Paris, who asked to be called Amel, plans to have her hymen resewn before returning home this summer to marry a man who, according to local custom, expects her to be a virgin.
This is her story, as told to Reuters on condition her identity not be revealed.
"I dated a boy when I was 15 and I didn't even realise what had happened," she said, referring to her first and only sexual experience. "I was very young. After we had sex, he became very possessive. I couldn't stay with him any more.
"I decided to get it done here because in Morocco, it's not official. It's just done in an office, not in a clinic. It's done around noon or 2 p.m., or at night, or when the secretary isn't there, and you don't know who is going to do it."
"It's known about just by word of mouth. In general, it's done in Casablanca and all the doctors do it."
"My friend's cousin has done it. She said (in Casablanca) they just use a string," Amel said -- instead of surgical sutures -- to close the hymen.
Wow, there are backroom hymen-attachment clinics in Casablanca?? And let's face it, it's youth who get this procedure done. I mean, who looks for a 40-yr. old virgin?
So now let's ask ourselves ... how many options do young women and teens have? What happens when there's an infection? Who can she tell, and where can she go for treatment if this is all kept secret? And how many of these young women get sexually abused in these clinics by practitioners who know they can't tell anyone they were there? I don't even want to think about it, but we must ... and then some. Read more here ...