Whether it’s seen as a clever little gadget to help a woman keep a secret or a devilish deception that threatens Islam, the Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit is not welcome in Egypt. The kit allows a bride who is not a virgin to pretend she is on her wedding night. A pouch inserted into the vagina ruptures and leaks a blood-like liquid designed to trick a new husband into believing that his wife is chaste. It’s a wink of ingenuity to soothe a man’s ego and keep the dowry intact.
Egyptian conservatives condemn the device as technology that will promote promiscuity in a culture that forbids premarital sex. Their protests are arising in a nation that over the last 40 years has gone from miniskirts and secularism to hijabs and religious devotion.
“No more worry about losing your virginity. With this product, you can have your first night back any time,” states the Web site of a Chinese mail-order company that sells the kit and other sexual products, including sex dolls and bondage toys, worldwide. “Add in a few moans and groans, you will pass through undetectable.”
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which controls 20 per cent of the seats in Egypt’s parliament, have called for banning the kit and arresting anyone selling it on the black market. Cleric Abdul Moeti Bayoumi has issued a fatwa urging that peddlers of the $30 device be charged with banditry and punished for spreading immorality and sin.
“Egyptian girls are normally afraid to lose their virginity before marriage,” Sayed Askar, a lawmaker and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, recently told parliament. “A product like that can make it easier and tempting for girls who don’t have strong wills to commit such a sin.”
Lina Samaan, an accountant, said the furore raises disturbing questions about her country and the double standards that often apply to women. “I think it’s a shame that we are discussing a product like this. If most girls don’t have sex prior to marriage only because they want to keep virginity, then there is something wrong with the way we think,” she said.
The emotion over the kit speaks to a traditional society that is increasingly pious, whether it’s rich professionals seeking moderate Islam on websites of progressive imams or poor and middle-class families adopting strict religion as a buttress to the influence of Western media and a loss of confidence in a state that has failed to provide prosperity. “Having something like the virginity kit can cause complete mayhem within the social life,” said Farid Ismael, a member of parliament’s health committee.
The kit is marketed to offer a sleight of hand. Such secrets keep prospective brides in the graces of their families and avoid what in rare cases are honour killings against women accused of promiscuity.