In the past 20 years, a phenomenon quite like selective abortion has hit Albania. Every day 3 girls or women in Albania undergo an illegal surgical procedure that medically turns them into virgins again. The western medical term is 'hymen reconstruction.' Why? Because female virginity is a synonym of purity. It is very typical for young female Albanians to keep long distance relationships with Albanian men who are outside of the country until their marriage and while there is no proof of infidelity on the male counterpart of the relationship, the female is meant to remain a virgin until her fiance returns home for marriage. Also, on traditional Albanian values, a bride dowery is placed on the bride and is 'bought' from her future husbands family and part of that deal is that she's a virgin. This procedure goes on in other developing countries, not only Albania, based on previous ideals from traditional values (India, Macedonia, Vietnam... many more).
Now in traditional Albania, and some but not so much any more, after the first night that a newlywed couple spent together, female members of the male family would check the sheets that the newlywed's shared the previous night for evidence of virginity from the female. Now, not so typical, this still holds true in some very traditional families and when a 'bride dowery' is in place.
"Until the 50s, in this country a woman had to hang out her blood-stained sheets after the first wedding night, to prove her virginity to her husband, relatives and neighbours. It is exactly the same phenomenon. Some women even come to the clinic accompanied by their partners, who want to verify their young wives’ virginity when they do not bleed during their first sexual act. This happens in 38% of cases", the gynecologist continues...
According to last years statistics, most Albanian girls loose their virginity at the age of 13. "Male sexual freedom is well accepted, while female sexual freedom becomes a disadvantage once women get married." Click here to read the entire article.
