Hymenoplasty has been practiced for decades in the Middle East and Latin America because of social and religious customs that stress virginity.

Recently, some leading newspapers reported that hymenoplasty, or restoring a woman’s virginity by surgically reattaching the hymen, is becoming more common among women of Muslim origin who live in France, Germany, Canada, and other parts of the world, including the United States.

For example, on June 11, 2008, The New York Times published an article titled, “In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity,” in which the head of the French College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, Jacques Lansac, was quoted as saying there is no place for this kind of surgery in secular French society, where the procedure goes against equality of women, human rights, etc.

This and other newspaper articles note that the practice of hymenoplasty is nothing new.

In the United States, for example, some women go as far as getting hymenoplasties as Valentine’s Day gifts for their husbands—arguably one of the most frivolous of procedures, which rankles feminists and progressive thinkers.

Under an apparently common interpretation of Islamic law, family members have executed brides-to-be who cannot prove they are virgins when they marry, in order to retain family honor. Reports of these “honor killings” have grown more numerous in secular states—such as France, Canada, and the United States—as those countries increasingly play host to emigrating Muslims.

Most women will do what it takes to avoid being attacked over virginity. For instance, a Muslim woman from Macedonia said she opted for the hymenoplasty procedure to avoid being punished by her father after a long-standing relationship with her boyfriend.

More.