Chinese brides may keep virginity secrets

Many Chinese women are locked in tradition

By Francis Markus BBC correspondent in Shanghai

The Chinese Health Ministry has passed new regulations stating that the results of routine virginity tests during premarital medical examinations for women must be kept private, according to state media.

The new rules say that no one, not even the woman's intended marital partner, has a right to know the result.

But, paradoxically, hospitals will be instructed to keep a record.

China's Women's Association says the measure will help avoid what it calls "the tragedies which often occur among traditional families when it's discovered that a woman is apparently no longer a virgin".

Women's rights

Every Chinese man and woman planning to get married are legally required to undergo a medical check before they tie the knot - or that is the theory at least, even though the implementation is patchy.

The check-up is designed to identify genetic diseases which can lead doctors to recommend against marriage.

Most controversially, it also routinely includes an examination of whether or not a woman's hymen is intact, even though doctors say that is not a reliable guide to virginity.

One Women's Association official in the southern city of Guangzhou told the BBC that it had long been standard practice at urban hospitals to keep the test result private.

However, she said the new law would help to protect women's rights in more traditionally minded areas.

But China remains a society where practices such as trafficking in women are common.

The amendment to the regulations is likely to be just the start of a difficult process of changing people's attitudes.