Article: Muslims in Europe seek operations to 'restore' virginity: M.D.s urged not to sign fake certificates, offer surgery to women

SAINT-DENIS, France -- Young Muslim women in Europe are using surgery and lies to go to the marriage bed as virgins.

Hymen repair, fake virginity certificates and other deceptions, said to be commonplace in some Muslim countries, are practiced in France and elsewhere in Europe, where Muslim girls still live under rigid codes of family honor.

Such ploys have saved many a young woman from scorn and worse. But they also clash with the more liberal social mores of Europe, where some decry it as an attack on human rights.

The procedures are legal but shrouded in silence -- "something that passes through nonofficial channels," via friends or the Internet, said Dr. Nathan Wrobel. "There are ...

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