Muslim Bride to Compensate Groom After Secret Virginity Operation

An Egyptian woman has been ordered to pay her former husband £5240 ($7,500) in damages after he discovered that she lied about being a virgin.

A civil court ruled that the woman had not informed her husband that she had lost her virginity prior to them getting married and had even undergone surgery in an effort to conceal the truth.

She must now compensate him for the emotional damage she caused by faking her virginity.

The man said that as a result of her deception he was 'suffering from depression and had lost trust in the people around him.'

A judge upheld a previous ruling that found she had deceived her husband and increased the compensation she must now pay.

The pay-out will apparently also help him overcome the stigma of what is considered in some parts of Arab society to be an embarrassing ordeal for him and his family.

During the bitter divorce battle, which went to the court of appeal in Abu Dhabi, the judge heard that the woman allegedly had lied about a number of key points about her background.

The court established the woman had been married earlier and had divorced her first husband.

It also acknowledged that she had made false statements 'with the help of her father, in the couple's marriage contract - stating that she had never been married or had sex,' according to press reports.

The couple had been married for three years, and had a child together, when the husband received a text message exposing the woman's lies.

Religious customs mean that for many Egyptians there should be no sex before marriage.