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| Indonesia military |
Women in Indonesia who wish to join the military, police enforcement or to wed a military man are compelled to take a “two-finger” virginity test, authorities said.
The current law — which has been around for decades — requires women to strip naked to let doctors examine whether their hymen is in tact, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
The World Health Organization has said that there is no scientific validity for these virginity tests and no reason why they should be performed.
Still, the method continues to be standard practice in the early stages of enlisting in the army or enforcement to defend the so-called “moral honor” of those who serve.
“When confronted about the practice, military and police officials said they wanted to make sure that ‘sex workers’ could not become police or military officers, which is pretty much the most ridiculous explanation I've heard for a policy, ever,” John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told the Daily News.
“The fact that if you had lost your viriginity, that somehow meant that you were a sex worker — not to mention that there isn't anything wrong with a former sex worker being a police officer — is absurd.”
Major Gen. Fuad Basya of the Indonesian military previously elaborated on the law to local news outlets, explaining that the practice is based on a matter of national security and that if a potential military personnel lost her virginity out of wedlock, then her mental state would somehow make her unfit to serve, the BBC reported.
Sifton denounced that rationale and added that after talking to military and police officials in the country, authorities not only doubled down, but said they would perform an analogous test for men, if such an exam existed.
“It's painful, degrading and traumatizing to some recruits, and a lot of women find it deeply insulting that they have to undergo this test,” Sifton said.
“It's one of those things where it's like, ‘what's wrong with this test? Let me count the ways.’”
The practice, which first made headlines in May, has recently resurfaced as President Obama met with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday at The White House.
In advance of the meeting, advocates urged the leader of the free world to address the concern, along with a series of other human rights issues, with the Indonesian leader.
The White House however, announced the discussion would range in topics such as trade, climate and defense cooperation, without any mention of the human rights issues plaguing the country.
President Barack Obama and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo met at the White House in Washington on Monday to discuss a range of topics. (© JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS/REUTERS)
“President Jokowi isn’t responsible for the flurry of regulations harming women’s rights, but he is now best positioned to do something about it,” Sifton had said in a statement prior to the meeting.
“President Obama should stress the importance of tackling Indonesia’s restrictions and discrimination against women and girls before it gets worse.”
Despite Obama having spent time as a child in the Southeast Asian country, stating in his meeting on Monday that he has personal interest in the country because of it, both presidents avoided publicly discussing the issue, the New York Times reported.
“I don't know what President Obama said behind closed doors, but we were pushing for him to raise the deteriorating situation for women and religious minorities because of pre-existing but also new legal restrictions on minorities and women,” Sifton told The News following the meeting.
“I think we need to c
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