Hymen reconstruction surgery carried out for religious regions under national health services

3.5.2016

Question for written answer E-003736-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Mario Borghezio (ENF)

Hymen reconstruction surgery is becoming increasingly common in the EU. The hospitals specialising in such operations attribute the increase to deference to Islamic precepts, which require women to be virgins when they marry. This trend is a reflection of the spread throughout Europe of a traditionalist cultural and religious orthodoxy that subjects women to rules that rob them of sexual and other freedoms enshrined in the Treaties, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Ostensibly, the women having such operations choose to do so freely, but in reality their freedom of choice is circumscribed by an illiberal patriarchal religious culture that requires women to be sexually inactive prior to marriage and proof of their virginity to be provided to the husband's family in his country of origin. Bogus medical grounds are put forward for such operations, so that the cost may be fully covered by the national health system of the country in which they are carried out. The bill is therefore footed by European taxpayers.

Would the Commission not agree that it should take steps to ensure that this practice, which is motivated by illiberal religious principles, is banned or that the full cost is borne by the person requesting the intervention?