As part of what I see as my ongoing duty to report the latest in belt-tightening news; here is a TRUE story involving airport security and private morality:

ATHENS (AFP) - When a 40-year old British woman set off a metal detector alarm at Athens airport, bemused security staff found that it was caused by a chastity belt she was wearing.

"It happened a few days before Christmas. The metal detector went off and after a further check we found out she was wearing a chastity belt," airport police official Dimitris Tzouvaras told AFP, confirming a report in the daily newspaper To Vima.

"The woman was allowed to fly on to London on the pilot's responsibility," Tzouvaras added Friday.

According to the press report, the woman told police officers her husband had forced her to put on the belt to make sure she had no extra-marital affair during a brief visit to Greece.

Tzouvaras did not comment on that report.

Now that I see such a strict traditional idea being revived, I have no choice but to comment on it. In my view, virtues such as chastity should be freely chosen. This woman had every right to wear a chastity belt, just as drivers have every right to wear seat belts.

No moral equivalency argument here of course; driving is much more dangerous than sex!