It reads like a hoax, but I did some Googling, and prisons apparently have been using “anal” scanning chairs for a while now.

Reportedly the British embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is now using the creepy chairs as well.

(How long before we have to sit down for an anal exam at the nation’s airports too?)

Oh, the chairs do vaginal exams too. (No word on whether they offer you a cigarette after.)

Here’s an example of one such chair, sold by a company called Xeku, that looks a bit too much like the electric chair for my tastes:

I know what you’re thinking – why didn’t we know about this BEFORE Christmas?!

And they apparently are using chairs like this at the British embassy in Kabul. Oh, and get this – the Brits say they’re using the chair out of respect for conservative Muslim religious values:

In Afghanistan, it also means that visitors to Britain’s fortified embassy to do not have endure a pat-down of intimate areas – an important consideration in a conservative, Muslim society.

Yeah, because nothing says “I respect you” like a vaginal exam.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzaH8y0CAuE]