On Virginity and Marriage
The feelings toward the undeflowered virgin varied in Moslem and Hindu areas.
In India, the maid (kunyah, kumaree) was handled with the utmost delicacy; she was a frail willow, easily shivered by a course wind. But in the Moslem world man asserted his vigor. With gusto, he related of how he "rent the veil, broke the seal, and peirced the forge wherein children are hammered out."Softly, the fastidious Hindu spoke of "breaking the hairless peach";robustly, the fiery Arab said of taking a maidenhead; "I tore open a skin bag."
Now imagine that for a young woman who was forced to have an infibulation (the most savage form of female circumcision).