For centuries in almost all cultures around the world, women had no real choice about when, where and with whom they would have sex. Girls were the property of their fathers, who would eventually decide whom they would marry. Virginity was safeguarded as keenly as if it were a financial investment (because sometimes it was).
Although it never seemed a very big thing for young men, young women of yesteryear were never allowed to have sex before marriage. To do so brought scandal and shame on them and their families. Humans evolved into a species that required a female to prove she had not had sexual intercourse with anyone else so the man would know that her offspring was indeed his and no one else’s.
Even within the past month, a 15-year-old Maldives girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather was
