Chastity

Chastity is commonly used to mean sexual abstinence, especially abstinence from sexual intercourse, particularly for moral or religious reasons. The term can also be used to mean conformance with sexual morals, particularly faithfulness to a spouse.

Chastity is a virtue expected of the faithful of many religions, including Christians and Muslims. This usually includes abstinence from sex for the unmarried, and faithfulness to a marriage partner. In many religions some groups of people are expected to practice absolute chastity, i.e. to abstain from sex completely, and remain unmarried. These groups include most monks and nuns in Christianity, and priests in the Roman Catholic church.

Some groups that propose it consider sexual abstinence as an essential means to reach a particular intellectual or spiritual condition, or they may consider that chastity allows to achieve a required self-control or a self-consciousness. In many religions chastity is imposed to the respective sacerdotal orders.