Virginity testing is now a criminal offence in Kosovo as of this week following changes to the law voted on by the government, considering it a violation of human rights.
The new law comes alongside others which pass down harsher punishments for domestic violence, sexual assault, and rape.
“Virginity testing is also foreseen as a new criminal offense; this new offence is sanctioned because it is considered that this is an unnecessary medical test through which basic human rights are violated”, it is stated in the punitive measures published by the advisor of the Minister Albulena Haxhiu, Flag Pireva.
Anyone found carrying out such tests will risk conviction of a criminal offence under Kosovo law.
Virginity testing also takes place in Albania, where women also undergo surgery to ‘repair’ their virginity before getting married. These surgeries occur in private clinics and illegally in the public healthcare system against payment.
At least 1000 women are believed to undergo the process in Albania every year, which is carried out before marriage to conceal any previous sexual activity from their future husband.
Typically done on girls between 18-30 and cost around EUR 200, the procedures are carried out secretly and are banned by general gynaecological clinical rules. This doesn’t mean that clinics will refuse to carry them out. While they are not illegal or mentioned in Albanian law, the very nature of the procedure requires the utmost secrecy.
One doctor who wished to remain anonymous told the media that “until the 50s, in this country, a woman had to hang out her blood-stained sheets after the first wedding night, to prove her virginity to her husband, relatives and neighbours. It is the same phenomenon. Some women even come to the clinic accompanied by their partners, who want to verify their young wives’ virginity when they do not bleed during their first sexual act. This happens in 38% of cases, the gynaecologist continues.
Another source, working at Tirana’s state hospital as a nurse, explained that virginity repairing is lucrative and common, undertaken by many state employees, particularly in the autumn and spring, before many weddings occur.
