“Mr. Sharma, if you have finished your conversation with Ankita, why don’t we allow Rahul and Ankita to talk alone for a while?”
“Yeah, definitely, I mean their conversation is of utmost importance because they are the ones who’ll decide ultimately whether they want to marry or not.”
“OK Ankita, you can take Rahul to your room so that you both can talk peacefully there.”
They both entered her room, sat on her bed and then there was a deep silence for a few moments.
“I have certain questions and I hope you’ll answer them,” Rahul tried to break the silence.
“Yeah, please ask me,” Ankita said in a very polite tone.
“Are you still a virgin?”
And there was again a deep silence, Rahul was expecting an answer, and Ankita was shocked at how somebody could ask this question upfront.
“Does it matter?” she finally replied.
“Of course, this is the most important factor, I want a virgin wife,” Rahul commanded.
Virginity is like a first virtue demanded from unmarried females in India, and it is expected, that a girl shouldn’t have performed intercourse before her marriage. At the time of her auction (sorry I mean to say her marriage), she should be ‘untouched’ – so that her husband can experience an exciting feeling on their first night.
Do you know-how, in India, a horrific medical test is used to confirm rape?
The two-finger test – the most ‘tested’ and ‘scientifically proven’ method was adopted in the largest democratic country in the world for years.
Two-finger test – yeah, whenever a rape is reported, police sends the girl for medical examination. And the doctor inserts two fingers inside her vagina – to check whether the hymen is broken or not – if it is broken – if the fingers of the doctor penetrate easily inside the vagina of female, it is deemed that the rape victim is habitual of sexual intercourse, and vice versa if the fingers don’t penetrate easily.
Although the Supreme Court has banned the two-finger test to ascertain rapes and has ordered to conduct other medical examinations, this test is still conducted in some parts in absence of better medical procedures to verify sexual assault claims.
I can’t understand, how can somebody test the hymen of a girl to verify consent? If rapes were proportional to the condition of hymen – there wouldn’t be any such thing called ‘marital rapes’ in India. Yes, marital rapes do happen in India – but the sad part is – they go unreported many a time. And what about anal rapes? – Or those rapes where the hymen of a female is kept intact intentionally – so that she can’t prove that she has been raped.
Actually, ‘virginity’ is something we have adopted as an obvious characteristic of an unmarried girl. We term the girls decent or characterless on the basis of their hymens. A man may have sex with as many as girls he wants, but he wants a ‘virgin’ wife. No, I am not discussing whether pre-marital intercourse is right or not, it is something that depends on the conscience of a person, but can we stop taking the decision of marriages on the basis of ‘virginity?
The most important part is – we consider a girl virgin only if her hymen is intact. We consider a girl pure only if, on the morning after the first night, the bedsheet is coloured red from the blood that flourished from the ‘pure’ vagina of the bride. If there isn’t any blood – she isn’t a virgin.
Can we understand that the hymen layer is extremely sensitive and can be broken on playing intense sports, dancing, sitting astride on two-wheelers etc.? And can we understand that virginity and chastity are not the only measures to judge a person?
Virginity isn’t a report card that can assess the character of a girl.