Thank you for posting this link, Waleeja. The obsession with bleeding is ridiculous; when I lived in the Middle East I felt like everyone was obsessed with it. Girls lived in fear of their reputation while guys didn't have to worry about 'proof' of their purity on their wedding night and were out chasing foreign girls, prostitutes, anyone they thought they could get some action from. It was so dysfunctional. The Ask Imam link doesn't mention that some women (a pretty decent percentage, actually) are born with no hymen or very little hymen, so there's nothing to break in the first place, whether from horseback riding, husband, etc. There have been a few very well-publicized cases in the Middle East of girls killed after their wedding night because of lack of bleeding, even though post-mortem examination showed them to be virgins.
Re: tampons, I wasn't able to use them when I was unmarried because of the discomfort, but as others have mentioned, many girls have no problem, it's just up to your individual physique. Post-marriage, I've found them to be the most comfortable solution---when properly inserted you do NOT feel them. You also do not have to worry about 'losing' them----they have a string that stays well on the outside and you use this to pull it out. As for clots, they are not absorbed into the tampon but they do stick to it and will come out when you remove it. Your body is extremely efficient at eliminating anything that exits your uterus---it doesn't need extra help and whatever kind of 'packing' you use down there won't change the elimination process, so don't worry about that.
Hope that wasn't too graphic for GS. :)
Thanks hun! this was actually very comforting. i think i'm gonna actually try tampons this time (after 3 years of marriage!) i need to get over this fear i have!