Throughout scripture, marriage practices were a very complicated system. Because women did not have many rights and were unable to own property. As a result, levirate marriage established a system in which women's social security as they aged was protected by ensuring that they had heirs to which to pass their estate and children to care for them in their old age.
Under this system, typically, it was the responsibility of a widow's brother-in-law to marry the widow in the event of her husband's passing before leaving her with an heir as outlined in Deuteronomy 25:5-6. This is seen in the story of Judah and Tamar and complications arising from this tradition are seen in the story of Ruth.
Similarly, the bride-price or dowry was intended to compensate a family and a father for the loss of a worker in agragarian society as well as ensure that in the event of a divorce, a woman would have some recompense upon rejoining her family. This-bride price also had a ripple effect within the familial-social system by allowing a family to use the bride-price received from marrying off a daughter in order to allow a son to find a bride.
One component of this was the virginity of the bride-to-be. Exodus 22:16–17 and Deuteronomy 22:28–29 indicate that if a woman loses her virginity before marriage, she may no longer be able to fetch the bride-price as a result and these verses provide for economic recompense in these situations.
In modern Western culture, we no longer maintain these practices or arranged marriages and purchasing of virginity as they are considered barbaric. Since women are no longer treated as property and have equal rights to men, this is considered a barbaric relic. Despite dispensing with all of the other components of the levirate marriage complex, one component that remains in western culture is the idea that sex before marriage is still un-Biblical today, while the other components of levirate marriage do not enjoy an equal status or treatment. This belief may be more influenced by the virtuization of the virginity of Mary, but what is the Biblical basis for dispensing with Levirate Marriage Customs but not the interlocking requirement of virginity before marriage in Western culture