January 27, 2015
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
Iranian women perform their evening prayers during Ramadan in northern Tehran, Iran.
Having grown up in southern Iran, Mahrokh Gholamhosseinpour knows the culture's outlook on — and the consequences of — young women not bleeding on their wedding night.
In a society that stresses innocence and purity, many young women have lost their lives for losing, or allegedly losing, their virginity before marriage.
Now there's a way for young women to give the impression of purity, Gholamhosseinpour says in her article on IranWire.
She first discovered the concept of a "vaginal suppository" on a friend's Facebook page.
The page featured discussion about a “pill” women can take, a suppository containing blood-colored gelatine that can be inserted into a woman’s vagina on her wedding night before intercourse. The woman’s body temperature melts the gelatine, creating the illusion that she has bled as a result of her hymen being broken. Those who buy the suppository, which also goes by the name of “plastic membrane,” are primarily immigrant Muslim women in Europe.
Gholamhosseinpour contacted the seller and posed as a potential customer in order to get a better understanding of the product. After asking generic questions about price and production, she brought up the issue of morality.
The salesman said the product was protecting women whose safety was threatened.
Still, Gholamhosseinpour said a better solution may be to change the cultural mindset on sex before marriage for both genders.
“Maybe,” I say, “it would be better to bring up our sons in a way that makes it possible for them to accept that, if they can have sexual experiences before marriage, their future spouses have the same right.”
