Abusing Our Women: A Look at Abuses Against Women Around the World

The silent screams of women continue to haunt our world into the 21st century.  Will they be heard today, or will the cosmos degenerate into an even more hostile habitat for womankind?  This article supplements the discussion on Women's Abuse In India, America and Elsewhere.

The Test of Virginity

Virginity has held the reins of a woman’s social acceptance since the Middle Ages.  Today, the fates of countless women still hang upon the discovery of an intact hymen when forcibly subjected to horrifying virginity examinations.  Scientifically, this traditional method is inaccurate.  Outrage exploded in Turkey in 2001 when five teenage girls attempted suicide rather than to be subjected to such tests.  Later, the Turkish Ministry of Health mandated virginity exams for female students; failing the exam would lead to expulsion from government-run schools.  The law was shortly repealed due to widespread protest.

Down in South Africa, however, traditional virginity testing has been revived as a tool to promote sexual abstinence where modern birth control is not tolerated and the AIDS epidemic has dramatically exploded to alarming scales.  However, the practice courts hazardous consequences.  Using the same pair of gloves repeatedly after unknowingly having come into contact with an HIV-positive patient transmits the virus to other girls.  Even more threatening is the predominant myth that having intercourse with a virgin can cure one of AIDS, encouraging rape, incest, and the further spread of AIDS in an embittered continent.