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Myths of the Avicennan flap
Brouhaha in France over a judge that granted an annulment on the basis of the presumed non-virginity of a bride.
There are a lot of myths about women and their nether regions, and one of them is that all women actually bleed upon their first sexual encounter. “Some hymens are stretchier and/or more durable than others, and they may not have any problems at all with stretching to accommodate things like tampons, fingers, or a penis. Others are less stretchy and more fragile and they may tear at the slightest touch. And some are in between.” (Ref)
It also seems that it was a Muslim scientist (Ibn Sina aka Avicenna) who gave the first realistic explanation for the pain that some women (not all) experience during their first experience of intercourse. Continuing the tradition of naming female parts after the male scientists who ‘discovered’ them (i.e. Fallopian tubes, the glands of Montgomery, the G[räfenberg]-Spot) perhaps we should call the hymen, “the Avicennan flap”. What do you think?
Tags: hymen, Ibn Sina, Muslim Feminism, virginity
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June 1st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I think that is disgusting! How dare such a man persume to grant divorce! In Islam one needs witnesses to prove adultery. This poor woman will now be stigmatised for something she possibly hasn’t done!
I read that the majority of women do not bleed on their first time -for the reasons that you mention above- and none of the females in my family have ever bled and they were certainly chaste until marriage!
You should read Nawal al-Saadawi’s book ‘The Hidden Face of Eve’
You should also check out the debate on this subject over at my blog, this is a subject I feel very strongly about as it such a problem in Egypt…some men won’t marry uncircumcised women because they don’t trust them to be virgins unless they’ve been mutilated!
http://je-suis-ici.blogspot.com/2008/05/like-virgin.html
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 am
There is a verse in the Qur’an that prohibits accusing chaste women of sexual immorality:
“Those who slander chaste women, indiscreet but believing, are cursed in this life and in the Hereafter: for them is a grievous Penalty.” (An-Nur 24:23)
Thanks for the link, I’ll surf on over now.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:59 am
Salams Arima,
I’m going to take the liberty of stealing your link to the fatwa from Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa saying that breaking of hymens is not a rational way to assess virginity and besides men should be worrying about their own virginity besides!
As a point of comparative law, the Baha’u'llah was asked the following:
“Supposing that a man hath wed a certain woman believing her to be a virgin and he hath paid her the dowry, but at the time of consummation it becometh evident that she is not a virgin, are the expenses and the dowry to be repaid or not? And if the marriage had been made conditional upon virginity, doth the unfulfilled condition invalidate that which was conditioned upon it?”
To which he replied:
“In such a case the expenses and the dowry may be refunded. The unfulfilled condition invalidateth that which is conditioned upon it. However, to conceal and forgive the matter will, in the sight of God, merit a bounteous reward.” (Ref)
But given that virginity cannot be reliably ascertained by either a husband or a wife in such a scenario, it makes this Baha’i ruling rather redundant.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:45 am
Feel free to take this link–I think it is an interesting debate and one that I believe seems more clear cut for women than it is for men. It is surprising how many Middle Eastern men continue to believe the hymen myth. Though in a way this is perpetuated to the women themselves who go to extremes to appear as virgins- hymenplasty and other such simulations