Virginity is a lost concept in the contemporary Western culture. Young women have become as liberated as the men when it comes to expressing their needs and desires even in the area of sex. For some, they say that this kind of freedom of expression can make an individual more stable with a defined sexual identity. But social and religious traditions have a lot of people still advocating the importance of preserving virginity and shunning from pre-marital sex.

The staunchest supporters of preserving virginity are the Christian churches, specifically the Catholic Church. Young women should emulate their mother Virgin Mary, being the purest and most chaste among all women. Catholic girls are enjoined to follow her example. Married women are held in respect and good opinion but there is a special place for women who have managed to preserve their virginity for a lifetime. In effect, virgin women are held in higher esteem and are regarded as holy. There are other pure women made as symbols by the Catholic Church in the upholding of virginity as the highest of virtues in women, one will be St. Maria Goretti who was promoted to sainthood, whose life was taken while resisting a brutal rapist.

In the olden times, a woman indulging in pre-marital sex bears not only the stigma but also physical punishment. Modernization has curtailed this sort of demeaning treatment of "erring" Catholic women. However, women from other cultures and religions are not as fortunate such as the Hindus, where virginity is the foremost pre-requisite for marriage. The death of the husband could be the worst fate any Hindu woman may suffer as it is thought that since her chastity is gone and she would no longer be worthy of any other man her existence becomes unessential. So what do they do to her? Tradition demands her to join her husband's cremation while she is still very much alive as a proof of her perpetual devotion to just one man. The practice of Jauhar runs in an almost similar context, although this suicidal act is done by wives during war where their husbands are sure to meet their death to avoid capture and their eventual desecration.

India has stopped these inhuman practices although some unenlightened fundamentalist are still pushing for their restoration. In any case, virginity is still considered a virtue in Hinduism today as well as Islam. The Islamic teaching goes as far as saying that Allah's purpose for creating the women's hymen is to serve as proof of the woman's innocence which will be broken only after engaging in intercourse after marriage. This will confirm that sex outside of marriage is unholy and immoral. To Islam, the purity of the body must be upheld at all cost.

The Westerners also value virginity to a certain extent. But whether or not a woman wants to preserve or lose it is her own personal decision. It is her body after all and whatever positive or negative experiences she gains by exercising this freedom will be on her.