I was forced to take a ‘virginity test’ – and it destroyed my life | UK News

Zara, who is not her real name, says her “whole world fell apart” when she was forced by her family to undergo a “virginity test”.

The British-born Bangladeshi woman in her 20s had a forced marriage, but before the wedding her husband’s family demanded to know that Zara was a virgin.

Here, she tells her story of how her family forced her to undergo a so-called “virginity test” – and the effect it had on her life.

My dad came to my room and told me that the next morning I had to go to a clinic in central London to get tested.

He sent my mother to explain that the future groom they chose for me to marry wanted a virgin wife. My family wanted to prove that I was a virgin by taking a test.

I didn’t approve, and it got dramatic with a lot of screaming and screaming. My father then took a knife and said he was going to kill himself if I didn’t agree.

Like any child, I didn’t want anything to happen to my dad, so I decided to comply. The next day, I entered the clinic.

I was asked to sign my consent to the test. I obviously didn’t want to, but I had no choice. I walked into the room with the doctor and begged him, saying “I don’t want to do this”. I asked if he would lie to my family and told him that I had taken the test.

He said, “No, I can’t do that. I got paid for the test.”

The doctor then asked me to sit on the sofa and open both my legs. It was a two-finger test.

I was a virgin.

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It was traumatic and uncomfortable. I felt like I was no longer a human being. You wouldn’t treat an animal like that. I was terrified. I was in tears, crying – I begged him.

The doctor was supposed to deliver the report within 48 hours, but that did not happen.

I was called back to the clinic, about three, four days later, to pick up the …