Virginity Testing
| Fatwa #1517 | Category: Marriage & Divorce | Country: Azerbaijan | Date: 13th June 2025 |
| Fatwa #1517 | Date: 13th June 2025 |
| Category: Marriage & Divorce | |
| Country: Azerbaijan | |
Question
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh!
A brother married a virgin. On their wedding night after intercourse, there was no blood coming from the wife. The wife claims that she did not commit zina, but the husband has strong doubts.
1. Can the husband take his wife to the doctor to find out whether it was due to zina or some other reason?
2. In such cases, is it permissible for the girl to expose her awrah to the doctor?
3. The husband took his wife to the doctor. If the doctor found out that she lost her virginity before the wedding due to intercourse, can he tell the husband?
4. The husband has strong doubts. And he knows that he cannot live with this. He knows that this will affect his happy life and in the future he may act unfairly or violate the rights of his wife. Is it permissible for a man to divorce his wife, preserving her honor and dignity?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
The absence of blood on the first night is not a sign of zina. Some women bleed whereas some do not. Similarly, it is not necessary that a broken hymen is always due to Zina. The hymen can break due to other factors too. Therefore, there is no just cause to place a doubt of Zina upon an otherwise pure chaste woman.
In line with the above, the woman cannot be forced to expose her awrah as this is not a necessary medical procedure. Furthermore, such tests of virginity which are done after the hymen is already broken hold little to no weight as they cannot prove anything conclusively.
How can a man claim to uphold the dignity and honour of his wife if he is prepared to make her undergo all the above despite the absence of any conclusive evidence? If his wife was otherwise pure and chaste and gave no reason to suspect anything, how can this be made into a scapegoat all in the name of honour and dignity?
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Bilal Pandor
Concurred by
Mufti Muhammad Patel
Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah
Lusaka, Zambia