Living as they do in a conservative, Muslim-dominated society where pre-marital sex is a religious taboo, many Pakistani women are going under the knife for hymen reconstruction surgeries to regain their lost virginity before marriage.

Just look up advertisements in English newspapers or websites or the walls of shops on busy street corners in cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, offering women a chance to shroud their past with a recreated hymen - and you'll know.

For instance, the website www.hopepk.com. offers help for a number of sexual diseases, and vaginoplasty and hymen repair are at the top. Post an online inquiry or call up 0092-3234195732 - a cell phone number with the Pakistani ISD code and 323 refers to Warid Telecom phone service.

The address of the hospital where the operation will be performed is divulged only when the customer is given a date. The website says it has two doctors - Sarfaraz Ahmed, a graduate of King Edward Medical College, Lahore, and Yasmin Sarfaraz, a gynaecologist and a member of Royal College Ob/Gyn London, who performs hymenoplasty.

Living as they do in a conservative, Muslim-dominated society where pre-marital sex is a religious taboo, many Pakistani women are going under the knife for hymen reconstruction surgeries to regain their lost virginity before marriage.

Just look up advertisements in English newspapers or websites or the walls of shops on busy street corners in cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, offering women a chance to shroud their past with a recreated hymen - and you'll know.

For instance, the website www.hopepk.com. offers help for a number of sexual diseases, and vaginoplasty and hymen repair are at the top. Post an online inquiry or call up 0092-3234195732 - a cell phone number with the Pakistani ISD code and 323 refers to Warid Telecom phone service.

The address of the hospital where the operation will be performed is divulged only when the customer is given a date. The website says it has two doctors - Sarfaraz Ahmed, a graduate of King Edward Medical College, Lahore, and Yasmin Sarfaraz, a gynaecologist and a member of Royal College Ob/Gyn London, who performs hymenoplasty.