CAIRO—A women’s rights group has filed a legal complaint against an Egyptian lawmaker who called for mandatory virginity tests for women seeking university admission, the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported Sunday. She said the lawmaker was harming the reputation of Egyptian women, men and the country itself. Agena said in an interview last week that virginity tests were needed to combat the proliferation of informal marriages, known as “gawaz orfy,” between students. The gawaz orfy is widely viewed as a religiously sanctioned way of having premarital sex, a taboo in mostly conservative and majority Muslim Egypt. In Egypt, as in other conservative, Muslim countries, a young woman’s virginity is widely seen as a matter of family honour, the loss of which could prevent her from getting married.

Source: thestar October 02, 2016 13:52 UTC