Virginity tests and artificial virginity in modern Turkish medicine

doi:10.1016/S0277-5395(96)00096-9

Women's Studies International Forum

Volume 20, Issue 2, March–April 1997, Pages 253-261

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(96)00096-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper addresses modern Turkish medicine as arbitrator of two modern medical practices: virginity surgery and virginity tests. These medical procedures are currently practiced by medical doctors [obstetrician-gynecologists (ob/gyns)] in modern Turkish society. The virginity of unmarried women has had a great significance for many cultures. The taboos on pre-marital sexual relationships contribute to this social anxiety over the hymen of women. In this respect, in contemporary Turkish society medicine plays a significant role in controlling and reconstructing women's bodies through virginity tests and virginity surgery. The aim of this paper is to contextualize these medical practices within liberal gender ideology and discuss the connection between patriarchal expectations about the virginity of the bride and medicine as an institution. In order to assess the perspectives of the physicians, thirteen in-depth interviews were conducted with Turkish ob/gyns.

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Moreover, anecdotal evidence and hymenplasty operations are not uncommon. They provide women with leeway in navigating sexual norms, and restore respectability and self-confidence in the marriage market (Cindoğlu, 1997; Mernissi, 1982). Escaping femininity and maintaining respectability can be seen as contradictory aspirations, since the ways in which young women escape femininity may hinder their claims to respectability.
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In Turkey, despite the many new laws that have been passed, the government has not fully lived up to its obligations to enforce the laws that protect women's rights, particularly with regards to laws concerning traditional practices such as honour crimes, and the testing of virginity (Cindoglu, 1997; Sahinoglu Pelin, 1999; Ilkkaracan, 2003; Hayran, 2009). Although hymen repair is not legally restrained by the laws in Turkey (Cindoglu, 1997; Alkan et al., 2002; Akpinar, 2003), women who have had sexual relations before marriage, might request the hymen repair due to fear of being killed, (Cindoglu, 1997; Ilkkaracan, 2003; Amy, 2008). According to Amy (2008), there are increasing demands from young women who feel forced to seek their virginity certificates or to have their hymen “reconstructed” before they marry in Europe (Amy, 2008).
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^☆: Research has been supported in part by the Turkish Medical Association.

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Virginity tests and artificial virginity in modern Turkish medicine☆

Abstract

Women's Studies International Forum

Virginity test — A bridal night-mare

Journal of Family Welfare

Re-viewing women: Images of patriarchy and power in modern Turkish cinema

Seeds of honor, fields of shame

The significance of family and kinship in urban Turkey

The formation of Kemalist female identity

Bekaret muayenesi uzerine

Toplum ve Hekim