Fake it till you make it… Your virginity, that is.

So this belongs in one of those Only-in-China type articles. You know, alongside the full-body umbrella and sock glue. But making the front page of ninemsn.com may well have propelled it into the mainstream. After all, who doesn’t need a fake-your-own-virginity kit? It’s finding its market in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, apparently, and has scholars and religious leaders up in arms as it gives would be ‘fornicators’ the tools to get away with “moral depravity”.

It might not have crossed their minds that women have been doing this for years, albeit more barbarically. Nothing a knife prick and a few drops of blood can’t disguise. At US$15 a pack, they’re a little bit cheaper than the hymen-repair surgery on offer in some Middle Eastern clinics. HYMEN REPAIR??

Girls can break their hymen playing sport or using tampons. Doctors have known this for years. It’s about time the rest of the world caught up - a few spots of blood on the post-wedding-night sheets is no proof of virginity. If only men were forced to ‘prove’ their purity in the same way.