Les réfections chirurgicales de l’hymen en Tunisie. Des techniques de purification et d’absolution ?

Abstract

Taking into consideration the use of "chinese" artificial hymens and the surgical practices of hymen repair (hymenorraphy and hymenoplasty), this article examines the interstitial spaces that allow to negotiate the social imperative of prenuptial virginity. It also investigates how the various actors involved (young women, medical personnel, religious authorities) construct specific discourses entailing a moral logic that justifies the reconstruction of the hymen through the mobilization of the principles of repentance, protection and the common good, as well as the notion of physical and psychic purification. Finally, it analyses how intimate surgeries place medical techniques at the intersection of cultural norms and individual, social and religious arrangements, that are both a form of expertise and a trick of concealment.

Keywords

• Tunisia
• virginity
• hymen
• surgery
• hymenorraphy
• hymenoplasty