Indonesia has been criticized before for “testing” the virginity of women who wish to become police officers before allowing them to become members of the force. Now, the nation has come under fire for trying to do the same thing — this time with graduating high school girls.
In the city of Jember, government officials have sought to impose a virginity test on female high school students which would bar from graduation anyone who doesn’t pass it.
The international community has deemed the test inhumane, discriminatory, and completely lacking in scientific validity.
According to Human Rights Watch:
In August 2013, HM Rasyid, education chief of Prabumulih district in South Sumatra, reportedly sought to impose mandatory “virginity tests” on female high school students to tackle perceived problems of “premarital sex and prostitution.”
Only after Indonesian civil society organizations attacked Rasyid’s proposal as “against human rights” and then-Indonesian Education Minister Mohammad Nuh skewered the idea as “degrading and discriminatory,” did Rasyid back off, insisting that he had been misquoted by domestic media.
In the midst of public outrage against this proposal, Ayub Junaidi, the Jember council deputy speaker, apologized for the idea:
“On behalf of the Jember Consultative Council we’d like to apologize to the public, especially to all women and girls across Indonesia,” he told local news site Kompas.com.
Unfortunately for Rasyid and Junaidi, Phelim Klein of Human Rights Watch does not believe that they were misquoted on the proposal:
The Indonesian government can’t feign ignorance about the abusive nature of such “tests.” The tests have been recognized internationally as violations of the right to non-discrimination and the prohibition against “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” under international human rights treaties that Indonesia has ratified. Indeed, in November 2014, the World Health Organization stated unambiguously that “There is no place for virginity (or ‘two-finger’) testing; it has no scientific validity.”
The use of virginity testing is still prominent in acceptance processes to the Indonesian military and police forces.
Human Rights Watch has called on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to declare that this type of testing will no longer be used by any members of the government, whether local or national, as a means for graduation of high school, nor entry into the military, police force, or other forms of civil service.
Recent reports indicate that the worldwide outcry against virginity testing has caused Indonesian officials to drop plans to institute the practice in high schools.
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