Belgium: Proposal not to fund 'virginity operations'

Belgian politician Anne-Marie Lizin of the Walloon Socialist Party wants to stop state subsidy of 'virginity operations'.

The enthusiastic senator presented a law proposal saying that hymen reconstruction operations will no longer be reimbursed by the RIVIZ national health insurance.  

Muslim men in particular want their future wives to be virgin during the wedding night.  In some cultures the bloodied sheet is displayed after the first night and girls who had sex previously cannot do so.

Therefore, more and more women are having their hymen reconstructed.  According to Lizin, some immigrant women are even urged to get a virginity certificate.

Hymen reconstruction is currently being reimbursed in Belgium by the RIZIV as "vagina and vulva plastic surgery".  This is really meant for repairing damage as a result of births, burns and abscesses.  Is there are medical reasons, then there would be reimbursement for the procedure.

In the Netherlands hymen reconstruction is fully reimbursed as part of the basic insurance.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

See also: Belgium: Hymenoplasty, Belgium: Honor violence under-estimated

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was completely unaware this kind of operation was actually covered in Belgium (or the Netherlands for that matter). I live here, and I know there's quite a large immigrant presence, it'd be interesting to see some statistics on this...

To be honest, I really don't think it should be funded.

mikemathew said...

Virginity is as distinctively human a notion as philanthropy. We invented it. We developed it. We disseminated the idea throughout our cultures, religions, legal systems, bodies of art, and works of scientific knowledge. We have fixed it as an integral part of how we experience our own bodies and selves. And we have done all this without actually being able to define it consistently, identify it accurately, or explain how or why it works.
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mikemathew
Buzz

Chatterbox said...

Well, you wouldn't buy a horse with bad teeth, or buy a car without checking under the hood! The merchandise should be in like new condition if you are paying top dollar for it but it is the seller’s reasonability to pay for the maintenance of the goods. How much does a Muslim woman sell for these days anyway? Hard to calculate the conversion when the currency is camels!

tanstaafl said...

Depends on the quality of the camel, I suppose.

Sandra said...

This sort of ignorance is appalling. With a considerate partner, a virgin will not bleed the first time she has intercourse. I guess this says more about Muslim (and other) males and their sexual abilities, and their lack of education than anything else.