ABSTRACT
In Egypt, some women who have had premarital sex disguise their lack of hymen through a surgical procedure, called hymenoplasty, in order to appear to be virgins when they marry. The procedure is deeply frowned upon by Egyptian society, and most physicians believe that it is not only religiously banned (harām) but also illegal and unethical. Yet one of the country’s highest religious authorities, the Grand Mufti of the House of Jurisprudence (which is responsible for making official fatwas, or interpretations of Islamic law), has ruled hymenoplasty permissible, and contrary to popular belief, there is no law against it, nor is it against any medical ethics code in Egypt. Based on participant observation and interviews conducted in Cairo and Alexandria over several years, this chapter examines rulings in Islamic jurisprudence for and against hymenoplasty, as well as the justifications offered by doctors who secretly perform the operation, to appreciate the complex cultural logic that assesses both women’s motives for hiding their sexual activity as well as the patriarchal hierarchy within families that attempts to meddle in the relationship between women and God. The case of hymenoplasty reveals the complex relationship between popular opinion, Islamic jurisprudence, and medicine in Egypt.
