It appears that virginity is a gift that Islam thinks women should
(only) gift to their husbands.
GROW UP MAN!!!!!!
Think beyond this religion bars.

mili, Mahe, India

Islam is very inhumane.It sees boys and girls with different glasses on its eyes.This should change.People should understand that religion is not above humanity.

jack neauman, Lanser, Belgium

i feel that muslims should respect their religion and wait until they are married to have sex. They are always talking about their rights and how much respect they have for their religion this is against their religion.

mohammed, glasgo, scotland

It is terrible what is going on in muslim world in respect with girls' virginity. That's true: a man who requires virginity, should be asked: how many times had you sex before marriage? and why such an egoism? why men can enjoy pre-marriage sex; women not? just why???? disgusting, inhumane

Gunay, Baku, Azerbaijan

islam is very vast religion it has certain limits,
if any muslim girl follow sayings of islam acts upon them
i can bet on it no one can challenge her viginity its dead sure that she is virgin.
reason being she wud have less urge for sex her circumstances minimise lust of sleeping with someone

Muhammad Kashif, manchester, uk

Man who asks for virginity should ask himself first if he is a virgin. It is natural tendency of the male who are not virgin want a virgin wife. And I would like to say the woman not to restore your hymen in the hospitals. Men should be educated that hymen can be destroyed without sexual intercourse

Rahil, London, UK

Islam must take a long hard look at the way sex is treated, how women are seen & this nonsense of not trying a life long partner before marriage.
Sex life of a couple is the cement in marriage, if there is not satisfaction for 'both' parties there will be trouble.
This is a human problem not Islamic

maggie millington, brittany, france

This operation shouldn't be done on the welfare state, no more than a boob job. Yawar, you ARE interfering in our business-sure, come here but don't expect us to embrace your beliefs. What about rape? Is she still 'pure in mind' then? This is just putting a religious affirmation on pure misogyny

Odile, Paris, France

Nadia, you're right, many American Christians are choosing to keep themselves pure and very laudable too. The difference is, they aren't murdered by their spouse/parents if they transgress, they are forgiven! What about if a woman is raped? Is she comforted? No, she's murdered for bringing shame

Cat, London, France

Allow and encourage hymanplasty. Whilst it is oppressive in the short run, once the operation becomes so common that 'everyone' is doing it, the value of a woman's 'proof' of virginity is no longer there and people will just have to take her word for her status, like they accept a man's word.

Miss Middle ofManchester, Manchester, UK

My comment keeps not posting, trying again? It is wrong to ask a Doctor to sign a what is really a "certification" of a lie. It is however a terrible thing to contemplate that a woman who has made a forgivable moral transgression in Christian doctrine, IS NOT "forgivable" in Islam& MAY BE MURDERED

Terri Dance, Salisbury, Missouri, USA

Can they re-attach a foreskin too?

David Masu, Zürich,

what century are we in ?we seem to be regressing into the dark ages based on religion

dave, essex, england

One wonders how long it will be before Islamic culture emerges from the Middle ages. Many immigrants moved here because of the advantages of our liberal culture but then expect to exercise medieval control over their daughters lives. The men of course can do what they like - what a great culture !!

David Craig, Lagrasse, France

some time i realize that how do we no that our own boyfriend or husband is a virgin i just want to no why does everything rely on girls. no man can no weather his wife or girlfriend is a virgin because the hymen can rip anytime weather your ridding a horse if you are doing excerize the hymen is so thin that you wont realize that its not there. and yerh the blood you only have blood if you are holding it tight or strong it has to go in slowly. im not a virgin i lost it wen i was 13 very embarrising but will pray to allah for forgiveness. you should never take reltionships so deep anything can happen so get married then do what you think is right dont be like me and regret it the rest of life and cant look up to another man feeling guilty after knowing your not a virgin if you are muslim. every man loves to break his wifes virginty knowing it is a gift that his wife has kept. so becareful girls you dont want to regret something the rest of your life specaily if it wasnt your fault....

salma khanom, London, England

The middle east has had that tradition since the beginning of time. Girls and women know what is expected of them. If they are willing to take the risk, then they should be held accountable when they get caught. It's very unfortunate that their practicing religion and culture is so strick. But what do you do? You can't change the way they live and you can't save the world.

Lori, Butte, MT USA

what about women who have this procedure to make sex more pleasurable for their husbands? I've read about this trend in this same newspaper that in the US married women are having their hymens reconstructed to give their husbands the 'gift' of taking their virginity again. What a joke! There are more important things to worry about than a piece of skin. I'm a Muslim female by the way.

Amira, London,

Let's not get things mixed up here! This is not radical Islam, this is moral excellence and tradition; practiced amongst the 'traditional' and the 'modern', It is about choice! The majority of muslim women 'choose' to give themselves only to their husbands and 'choose' to remain virgins until they marry. As far as I hear and see on TV, this is a rising trend amongst American youth and many European youth as well who also 'choose' to do the same! Chastity is a virtue, it should be celebrated but if you do not 'choose' for yourself, it's your business but don't force your views on others, you can't order people not to be virtueous! :-)

By the way, I do not personally approve of the 'fix' before marriage, to me, its betrayal, just like adultery in marriage because it is dishonest. You're either a virgin or you're not and you have to live with the consequences of what you 'choose' in life.

Nadia, London, UK

This is Europe and in our culture it's extremely offensive and unbelieveable to do such a barbaric act. Why do we have to make an effort to understand it? Why do we have to worry to be blamed as racists if we say that this kind of things must be completely forbidden?

Yago, Shrewsbury, England

E Chibwe - why exactly is it 'not nice' to marry someone with a sexual history? This is exactly the attitude that explains why these women are having their hymens reconstructed. A woman's virginity should not be seen as some kind of 'prize' that a man wins. It is the woman herself that one marries, not her hymen.

As for HIV and virginity - I agree that surgery is not the answer. Condoms, sex education, regular STD testing and an honest, vigorous debate about the problem could be, however.

Isobel, Oxford,

Perhaps it is time we acknowlege that this is yet another episode of Europe's passive response to the growing threat of radical Islam.

Nathan Nelson, Cumming, GA USA

This certainly leads to a total hypocrisy.
The mentalities in french muslim families have evolved and they are more lenient than before.
The problem described in this article is affecting a very small number of muslim girls since the vast majority of them are truly virgins before marriage.
You are right : It should be private health care at their expense.

Marsali, Paris, France

So do the men have to be virgins also,how do then intend to prove that.If not well who do the men have sex with?
Its just such an old fashioned outdated idea,if they wish to live that way send them back to their own countries,they are such hypocrites,just like the suicide bombers,what happens to the virgins they supposedly believe they sleep with?
Once again governments give into these fundamentalists at the tax payers expense,do their countries support our ideas,I think not!

iain Milligan, dubai, UAE

The doctors should defer to their patients and not get caught up with self righteuosly thumbing their noses at fundamentalists. What a joke. If the girls wanted biggers busts or cuter noses those same doctors would do it in a heartbeat.

JJ, Durham, NC

It may be an opinion entirely of my own, but having sex with someone demonstrates your deep love for that person. Obviously, there are other ways you can show this; e.g. kissing, embracing another person into your arms, etc. If you have sex with someone then the passage that must follow is marriage. Sex is an emotion that should ONLY be shown and given to the one person you will spend the rest of your life with. I cant believe the society we live in where people; drink, smoke, swear, and even have sex (excessively). Its a difficult position to be put in for a man if he's thinking she is as pure as him. If he aint pure he shouldnt have a problem and if he does, then the woman dont want to marry him. If he's just doing it to keep her under his thumb then screw that [not in that sense!]. If he is a good man, then its worrying to him that she in not a virgin, but like i've written, if she is pure in thought and nature then he knows its a right decison to follow through with their plans.aaa

Malik X, Outta, None

let them have it,but it should be private health care at their expense.
The State should not submit to irrationalism and mediavialism ,in my opinion,

james rea, Launceston, UK

Who should face the moral dilema _
the doctor ?
the girl
the boy who wants to ensure
fundamentalists
Anyway I dont think it is the doctor. Let the world open their eyes.

V Karpaka Rajan, abu dhabi, uae

Perhaps Professor Lansac feels that the lives of young Muslim women lost to honour killings is a price he's willing to pay for not "giving into the fundamentalists"

Wanyi Weng, London, UK

E Chibwe, I think you must be a MAN. I wonder if you really have the right to insist that women remain virgins until they marry a virgin man. What century do you live in? Your views are typically fundamentalist - Muslim or Christian. Are you aware that HIV spreads in other ways than intercourse? A moral panic that is ill informed and anti woman.

j fleming, Peterborough, Cambs UK

It is not nice to marry someone with a sexual history (man or woman) People with sexual histories should marry each other. Virginity is not a fundamentalist thing. In Africa it is a survival thing. And if doctors start sewng together broken hymens and pretending they are virgins. The implication for HIV deaths is really very bad. this is something doctors should not even think about. Virginity should stand on its own.

E Chibwe, Birmingham, UK

they dont have to marry muslim if they fear for their live. they are moderate in other issues of life , like going out, drinking, making friendship with unknown person which is not allowed in islam, then why they r insistant to mary only a muslim???? like they r doing many un islamic things they shud marry also a person who dont care if they were virgin or not. this is a hypocrasy of the biased ,narrow minded and anti islam and undemocaratic people of the west. why dont you peo0le understand like u we also have our way of living, do we interfer in ur business? then why u dont practice what u preach? democarcy.

Yawar Kazmi, Dubai, UAE

Women in fundamental Islamic countries need to change laws, obtain police protection for themselves, become economically self-sufficient and then social mores will begin to change, because they wil insist upon it and have the clout to make it so. Those who cannot wait probably need to relocate to a more modern society where they will have safety and be respected. For Islamic women domination by men means having men chose your clothes, where you can go, who you can marry and if and when you will have intimate relations. It is so repulsive it is hard to imagine any women putting up with it, let alone wishing to remain in such a culture. The flip side, of course, is that these domineering men are incapable of marital partnerships, probably sexually inept, and deeply insecure..

Emma H., London, England

I would suggest - it should be illegal to fill out a Virginity Certificate different than what the patient requests. It is an optional thing - like plastic surgery - so what the patient asks for should be automatically given unless there is compelling reason not to.

SImilarly, the operation should be automatically performed unless there is a valid medical reason to refuse. A doctor may refuse to perform the operation (provided it is the case for all patients they see). This is a matter of conscience. But, failure to fill a certificate as requested should be grounds for losing your doctor's license - it's obviously a matter of the patient's well-being, as well as nobody else's business.

Doctors in Canada routinely fill out employer-requested excuse slips for people who are off work sick - regardless of the evidence or lack. Why should a virginity certificate be any more significant?

Remove the meaningfulness of such a certificate, and maybe it won't be so much chased after.

MD, Manitoba, Canada

Professor Lansac opposes this phenomenon because, as he says, to do otherwise would be to give in to the fundamentalists. What reason would the good prof give if he were in the cosmetic surgery profession where there a rise in the number of requests for nose jobs?. Is there really a debate "raging" in the medical profession when a few doctors have noted an increase in the number of requests for this surgical procedure? How about a story about a French woman's plight in overcoming the difficulties she faces in trying to get the procedure done?

Mark Ferguson, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia