Obsessed with Virginity – Female Sexuality among Western Muslims | DW Documentary

Available for purchase are kits for faking virginity. Young Muslim women are supposedly among the target market. But who is really pushing the demand?

What significance does the requirement for virginity have among young Muslims? Are their own expectations and outlooks compatible with their parents' traditions? Filmmaker Güner Yasemin Balci heard some extremely personal responses to these questions while making the documentary ‘Obsessed with Virginity’. She was born to Turkish immigrants and grew up in the multicultural Berlin district of Neukölln. From an early age she was eager to know why Muslims often deny their children the right to self-determination, and what price the younger generation have to pay to be free. She talks to female activists, women's rights campaigners and psychologists, who themselves have Muslim roots. All of them have had to fight to be able to live their own lives. It meant breaking away from families and friends due to the women's rejection of moral concepts that make sexuality a crime - and which are still promoted by preachers in many mosques today as they were 900 years ago. These are women who want to educate and change society, with an agenda that is both personal and political.