The concept of virginity is highly controversial.
Who gets to attach value to it and why? And is the hymen, which many people who conduct virginity tests claim to be looking for during the examination, even really an indicator of virginity?
Virginity is important in certain religions – one would think that the hymen determines whether someone is a virgin or not, says sexologist Dr Elna Rudolph.
“They hymen is usually a very thin membrane found around the vaginal opening and interestingly enough it is actually very difficult to determine whether or not someone has had sex by looking at the hymen,” she explains.
