“Sewed girl” pronounced “virgin”: hymenoplasty and the shift in rhetoric of virginity in Iran

Abstract

In late 2018, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi posted a fatwa approving hymenoplasty for women who had lost their virginity before marriage, arguing that the medical procedure could restore a woman’s virginity and therefore her honour. Hymenoplasty, which restores a woman’s hymen to its ‘virgin’ state, is a highly controversial procedure in Iranian society because it strikes at the heart of the purist feminine ideal promoted by the Islamic Republic. For an ayatollah with a conservative reputation to sanction such a procedure seemed antithetical to his position in the regime. On closer inspection, however, it is possible to see his comment as a rhetorical attempt to assert control. Recent social changes, including an increase in the number of educated women and the emergence of new communication technologies, have challenged the rigidity of the old order as women take advantage of emerging freedoms of action and expression. Ayatollah Makarem’s fatwa endorsing hymenoplasty can be read as a response to this perceived threat. This essay draws on Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theory to argue that Ayatollah’s fatwa should be seen less as a tolerant recognition of social change and more as an attempt to maintain order. Fearing that women might begin to question and reject the entire moral order of the regime, he approves of hymenoplasty to prevent what Burke calls the ‘weak in virtue’ from falling into ‘the strong in sin’.

Keywords:

• Hymenoplasty
• female sexuality
• Iran
• virginity
• Kenneth Burke

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