The virginity dialogues

Guardian.co.uk ^ | January 08, 2007 | Khaled Diab

[forkinsocket]

How the Egypt's obsession with sex and virginity relates to the broader socio-economic picture

Experience is valued in everything, it would seem, except in the world of traditional courtship. I am no anthropologist, but it strikes me that most of human societies, either now or historically, place a premium on premarital sexual chastity, or "purity", particularly when it comes to women: from the Bantu of southern Africa, to the various faiths of South Asia, to the monotheistic religions of the Middle East.

While Egypt and other secularised Arab states were at similar to the west in terms of gradual sexual liberation until the early 1960s, the west has since had its sexual revolution. While the revolution has had its downsides, such as the objectifying of female sexuality, women have a lot more freedom today to choose the sexual identity that suits them.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, a sexual counter-revolution began its gradual march in the late 1970s, as more and more people turned to the security of Islam and tradition. And today premarital chastity - and even the illusion of it - are all the rage. Women have borne the brunt of this, mainly because men tend to enjoy greater leeway, despite the Islamic prohibition on all kinds of premarital sex, and are often applauded for their sexual prowess.

Armed with plenty of questions about female sexuality and how this reflects - or is influenced by - women's general social, economic and political status, I met two prominent Egyptian feminists for a chat while I was in Cairo.

[forkinsocket]

"There are two reasons for the obsession with sex and virginity," she tells me in her spartan office in central Cairo. "Anything that is unrealistically suppressed becomes an obsession. And too many people hold that the solution to all Egypt's problems is morality, and the main moral issue for them is how women relate to men."

[driftdiver]

Whereas rampant promiscuity is admired in the worlds liberal circles.

[theBuckwheat]

“Purity” is not an abstract or mythical primitive concept. It directly pertains to not biologically and genetically polluting the body of both mates so that they may share marriage in the fullest sense of the word.

Many studies of youth sexual practices in the west find that STDs in their many forms are almost pervasive. Children who engage in sex before marriage risk are literally polluting their bodies.

In the west, the left’s concern over how genetically modified foods could pollute the body in unproven ways is sadly way out of proportion compared to the risk they invite youth to take when they lure them into copulation under the banner of “safe sex”.

[KC_Conspirator]

“Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
— Saint Augustine

[Sir_Ed]

As a Christian I believe that sex only belongs within marriage. It’s sad to see the current post-Christian morality in America where people see sex as nothing more than a fun thing to do amongst “friends” whether short-term or long-term.

Ed

[Jeff Gordon]

It is my belief that men care about a woman’s virginity mostly because they fear comparison.