Hi @dibie,

As you rightly pointed out this is not a pervasive problem.

At one time, in many parts of the world women were considered chattels. Chattels means personal property such as your mobile, car, furniture, fixtures and fittings. At law, when you own a property you have certain rights, such as the right to possession, sell, use, enter, lease, rent and even to destroy it as you wish.

Any property which has been used or has a defect or a missing part or is not whole as it was originally made, is considered defective or inferior or unwholesome. And therefore, a woman, being a chattel, without a hymen intact, was considered unwholesome or a used property.

Although to a large extent we have abolished the concept of women are chattels, we have retained many of the property rights arising from such belief except for the rights to sell and destroy (kill) the women. Even the right to destroy (kill) is actually practiced in some parts of the world but does not get the kind of publicity it should get.

Read another related article here

In societies where women are considered equal to men, generally this concept of 'virginity is the pride of women' doesn't exist. It will certainly not exist in any society that is highly evolved.