hares on the mountain

The lawsuit from Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley Sons, and Penguin Random House alleges there have been significant revenue losses because of their controlled digital lending program. For context, most libraries in the US also use CDL to distribute books to their patrons wherever they are but those programs are run through for profit companies and the libraries are often paying a very high fee to so their patrons can have access to digital books. The Internet Archive’s program is completely free but they have a policy of not digitizing and lending anything less than 5 years old.

Bev Staunton & Rachel Stewart

Business is booming for a German company marketing ‘virginity’ to Muslim women eager for their husbands-to-be to believe they have been chaste until their wedding day. The massive influx of refugees from mainly-Muslim countries into Germany has helped to boost sales. The concept of hymen that can be purchased online originated a short while ago in China targeting the Middle Eastern market. But many people were worried about the quality of the product

Now the Made in Germany marque is cashing in on what it claims is a desperate need among many Muslim women to pretend they are virgins before marriage. Because it is a fraction of the average £1,750 it costs for a surgical procedure to replace the female hymen its products are being purchased swiftly and anonymously by people whose very lives could depend upon it. Virginia Care sells a package containing two ultra-thin membranes that a woman can insert herself to make it appear that her hymen is unbroken. It is being sold through the company website with the boast: ‘Quality from Germany.’

Each membrane consists of two cellulose skins between which a sterile, freeze-dried blood powder has been injected. The membrane is designed so that it fixes itself in place from the warmth and moisture inside the woman’s body, and then when it is pierced during sex the blood mixture provides ‘proof’ that she is indeed a virgin. The company has testimonials from Muslim customers saying that the product saved their lives. One wrote: ‘If your product did not exist, I would not now exist either.’ Another wrote: ‘I cannot begin to say how much you helped me. All the thanks in the world.’ The package costs 49.50 euros.

The issue of pre-marital sex for Muslim women in strict families is a dangerous - even life threatening - one. Earlier this month a couple from Pakistan living in the German city of Darmstadt received life prison sentences for killing their 19-year-old daughter when they learned she had been having sex with a boyfriend they did not approve of.

The online hymen service has however caused outrage in Egypt where politicians have called for it to be made illegal. A company spokesman said: ‘It has been well designed and cannot slip out. During sex it provides a natural seeming result with a trace of blood mixed with body fluids.’

They said they deliver the product all over the world but almost all of the customers were women with a Muslim background, with business booming particularly from Muslim women living in Europe. The package also comes with instructions telling a woman how to pretend that she has not had sex before. It says: ‘The woman needs to show pain. That is exactly what the man expects from a woman having sex for the first time.’ The firm even offers to different types, one is the Virginia Care Original but has a red-brown colour aimed mainly at parents and in-laws for the day after to prove virginity. The second is with a lighter more ‘fresh-blood’ look to it designed to convince a suspicious new husband.

its unnatural

men are supposed to be pretty and do little dances