Virginity test

A virginity test is a cultural practice and process intended to determine whether a woman or girl is a virgin; i.e., to determine that she has never had penile-vaginal intercourse. The test typically involves a check for the presence of an intact hymen, typically on the flawed assumption that it can only be, and will always be torn as a result of vaginal intercourse.

Quotes

• If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,
  And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid:
  Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:
  And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;
  And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
  And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
  And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
  But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
  Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
  • Deuteronomy 22:13–21 (KJV)

• The Greek Dances are extremely pleasant, and full of Mirth. [...] The fittest time to take the pleasure of viewing their way of Dancing, is when they are met at a Wedding; for on such Occasions they give themselves up to Joy and Pleasure, drinking, eating, and sporting, and indulging themselves in all manner of Diversions. The next Morning the young Woman's Relations make a Visit to the new-marry'd Couple, and examine the Bridegroom concerning his Wife's Virginity: Then they take the Bride's Bloody Smock, and expose it to the View of all the Company, as if it were some rare Curiosity. The Jews observe the same Custom at the Marriage of a Maid, and are even nicer and more scrupulous in this Point than the Greeks; for if the Bride's Honesty be not confirm'd by the Blood that appears on her Smock, her Reputation is irrecoverably lost, and she is immediately divorc'd from her Husband. They unanimously agree in believing that this is an infallible Mark of Virginity: And this Opinion is so generally receiv'd thro' all Asia and Africa, that if a Man shou'd endeavour to contradict it, he wou'd expose himself to the Laughter and Derision of all that shou'd hear him. The Italians are also persuaded of the Certainty of this Experiment, tho' they abstain from making a Shew of the Bloody Smock, for fear of exposing their own Shame; but the Husband examines his Bride very narrowly, and if he finds her not such as he expects and desires, 'tis in vain for her to endeavour by the most solemn Protestations to convince him of her Innocency. Nevertheless this way of trying the Chastity of a Maid is esteem'd uncertain and ridiculous by the French, and even by Chirurgeons; nor can I reflect without a certain Wonder and Astonishment on this Diversity of Opinions concerning a Question that one wou'd think might have been fully decided by so many repeated Experiments; for I see no reason to believe that our Country-Women are fram'd after another manner than the rest of their Sex.
  • Jean Dumont, A New Voyage to the Levant (English translation, 1696), Letter XXII