Accessed
4th September 2013
25
July 2013 Last updated at 16:36
Georgia
Brides-to-be in Georgia
The independent
National Forensics Bureau in the former Soviet state is offering the service
for 175 lari (£69), or twice that if you want it done quickly, reports Imedi
TV. That's more than it costs the average person to get by for a
month, according to national statistics. The women are often accompanied by
relatives, their prospective husbands or - often - their mothers-in-law, bureau
medical expert Eka Chavleishvili told the privately-run channel. "In many
cases, they leave very happy when they find out the truth - that is, if the
truth is acceptable to them," she added.
Maintenance of
virginity before marriage is deeply entrenched in the Orthodox Christian
country, although not everyone's happy with the idea of it being documented.
One young interviewee branded it "disgusting". She told the TV
reporter: "I would say no if I were asked to do this... if I am to spend
my whole life with him, he should trust me." Web users also mocked the
inspection service, circulating a digitally-altered image of an ID card with an
added "virginity status" parameter.
