FALSE PURITY

Indonesia Uses Banned Virginity Tests

On female police candidates.

Human Rights Watch slammed Indonesia for subjecting its female police candidates to virginity tests, despite a ban on the practice that was imposed four years ago. The test supposedly determines whether an applicant’s hymen is still intact, and has been “widely discredited as unscientific and degrading,” reports Reuters. An Indonesian National Police spokesperson did not deny the virginity tests were “routine” for women as part of the health exam, despite the ban, but claimed passing it was not a prerequisite. “Applicants who failed the test were not necessarily expelled from the force,” noted HRW’s Nisha Varia, “but women described the test as painful and traumatic.” One anonymous female police candidate described the experience: “I don’t have a problem with the test... but the way in which it was conducted, with many people in one room, violated our privacy.”