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France has been the victim of several bloody terrorist attacks for almost ten years. In the fight against radical Islamism, President Emmanuel Macron currently enforces a number of laws. This includes the prohibition of certifying that a woman is a virgin.
Doctors who hand over the certificates will soon be punished with heavy fines and imprisonment. Whoever ordered the certificate should also be penalized.
– Only women must present a virginity certificate. While the men are free. The ban will strengthen women’s rights, says Joëlle Belaïsch-Allart, who heads the French national organization of gynecologists.
She emphasizes that the hymen can be affected by other things besides a first sexual intercourse.
The media report that their parents forbade the use of bicycles to teenage girls. They are afraid it will affect the hymen, which can dishonor the family.
Gynecologist Joëlle Belaïsch-Allart is known for speaking out on the ban on virginity certificates. “Only women are exposed. Never men,” she says. Photo: Private
Fines and prison risks
From the beginning, the sanction would be 15,000 euros in fine for the doctor who defies the next law. But a special commission raised the bar this week.
On Thursday (21/1) it was decided that the sanction should amount to 30,000 euros and one year in prison. If the girl is a minor, the fine will be 60,000 euros.
Now, in February, a vote will take place in the National Assembly and then the bill will go to the Senate for approval.
“This will probably be the last major reform of President Macron before the next French presidential elections in 2022,” he said.
Joëlle Belaïsch-Allart is convinced that the ban will pass before spring. The protests are almost non-existent.
The marriage is over
On a bench on the Place de la République in central Paris, Muslims Nassim and Aziza discuss certificates of innocence.
– If a woman wants to make love before marriage, she shouldn’t be ashamed, Aziza thinks she is a housewife.
The couple has two children.
“Women shouldn’t be an object for men,” says her husband Nassim, an engineer.
In some cases, the question of innocence is deeply ingrained. In 2008, the Lille court annulled a marriage because the woman was not a virgin.
Until now, “virginity certificates” were not prohibited in France.
“I am concerned that women may be harmed if they do not obtain their certificates of innocence,” said gynecologist Ghada Hatem. Photo: Johan Tollgerdt
Internationally renowned gynecologist and feminist Ghada Hatem hands them out.
– Several women are threatened if they are not virgins. The father can beat her or the mother wants to expel her from the family community, she tells the GP reporter.
If a woman is afraid of being punished with death, of course I will help her with the surgical procedure.
Ghada Hatem, who was born in Lebanon, runs the House of Women north of Paris. Support women who have been victims of violence.
In some cases, he even agrees to sew the hymen.
– If a woman is afraid of being punished with death, of course I will help her with the surgical procedure, she says.
“The state takes control”
Until a few decades ago, there was often a tradition in Catholicism with a bloodstain on the sheet after the wedding night.
– Then they snooped about the woman’s sex life. Now that the state is taking the hard line, it is taking control of women’s sexuality, says anthropologist Corinne Fortier of the CNRS, France’s largest research institute.
He thinks that the woman should have the freedom to choose the certificate according to her own needs.
Fortier has investigated the certificates in several Mediterranean countries and claims that they are not only used in Islam, but also among Copts in Egypt and Christians in Lebanon.
– Often they are proof that the woman has not had a child with another man other than the one who is getting married, he explains.
Politician Marlène Schiappa, who led the ban, is linked to the Interior Ministry.
In the debate, he recently accused the Free Protestant Churches of regularly using certificates of innocence.
– Marlène Schiappa probably tried to show that the ban does not stigmatize Muslims. But she stepped on the piano, says Swedish journalist Henrik Lindell of the believers’ magazine La Vie.
”No! No evangelical Protestant requires a certificate of innocence, ” they responded on the site infochretienne.com.
However, the law will not stop gynecologist Rada Hatem.
– It will be difficult to put a doctor in jail. “Who can know that I just issued a certificate of innocence?” He says.
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