'The
virginity test is an unscientific, cruel, degrading and discriminatory treatment
that a woman should never experience'
Jakarta Globe, Kennial Caroline Laia, Feb 10, 2015
Jakarta.
Human rights activists have called on President Joko Widodo to formally ban all
so-called virginity tests by public institutions in Indonesia, including those
used by the Indonesian police and military against female recruits.
Andreas
Harsono, a Jakarta-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, said that Joko
should issue a presidential instruction to specifically address the problem.
He made the
call following a report last week that the local legislature in the East Java
town of Jember was mulling a bylaw that would require female high school
students there to pass a virginity test as a requirement for graduation.
The plan
sparked an outcry from activists the country over, who have also long protested
the use of virginity tests by the National Police and the Indonesian Military
(TNI) as part of their selection process for new cadets. Even fiancees of TNI
soldiers are subject to a virginity test; they must pass it in order to be able
to marry a soldier.
“The recent
debate on virginity tests is just an extension of the existing issues,” Andreas
told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday. “There will always be controversies about
the virginity test until the president himself instructs [state institutions]
to prohibit the practice.”
Andreas
said the virginity test violated human rights. He said many women fainted or were
traumatized after undergoing the crudely named and offensively invasive
“two-finger test.” Officials’ typical defense of the procedure is that it is
carried out by a female examiner.
“The
virginity test is an unscientific, cruel, degrading and discriminatory
treatment that a woman should never experience,” Andreas said, echoing a
statement from the World Health Organization.
The WHO in
December condemned virginity testing in Indonesia, following news reports that
the police continued to administer the test for women applying to join the
force.
A
commissioner with the National Commission on Violence Against Women, Kunthi
Tridewiyanti, said Indonesia should not violate its citizens’ privacy.
“The state,
the lawmakers — they don’t have any business with someone’s virginity. That’s a
private matter that must stay protected. Moreover, what does virginity have to
do with educational achievements? It’s nonsense,” Kunthi said in response to the
Jember controversy.
“There are
many more ways to educate our younger generations or to preserve their morals.
Virginity testing, however, is an overreaction. There’s no reason to perform
it.”
Kunthi
added that the test proved that the patriarchal tradition was still very much
in force in the country.
“This issue
indicates that discrimination against women continues to take place here,” she
said. “Our country, in a way, still has that patriarchal system or mind-set
that limits women and girls from expressing themselves, whether in finding a
job or even in marriage.”
 |
A Muslim
high-school girl sits in a classroom. A local Indonesian
MP had proposed
that all girls have a virginity test in order
to graduate from school. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
|
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