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‘Virginity Test’ Stokes Indonesia Debate
Indonesian policewomen stood guard at a protest in Jakarta in 2012. Many female police recruits face virginity
inspections. Credit Adek Berry/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Col. Sri Rumiati made her career in the Indonesian National Police, but the day she was tested for it, in 1984, is one she would rather forget.
During a mandatory physical examination, a doctor led her into a private room, asked her to disrobe and administered a so-called virginity test, inserting two fingers to determine whether her hymen was intact.
“I was not comfortable with the test,” said Colonel Rumiati, who is now a police psychologist. “The test can be stressful on women and embarrassing.”
It mattered little that the doctor who tested her was a woman. It felt like a violation, she said, one that does not determine virginity, that has no comparable equivalent for male police recruits, and that does not achieve its ostensible goal: evaluating a recruit’s morality.
“You learn about the morality of a candidate from prosocial behavior testing,” or evaluating a person’s actions, she said. “It’s not about virginity.”
Women who apply to be police officers in Indonesia have been subjected to virginity testing since at least 1965, when the police force was placed under the command of the military. The Indonesian military has conducted virginity testing on female recruits for even longer, said Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya, a spokesman for the armed forces.
But the issue has set off heated debate here since Human Rights Watch, the international nongovernment organization, released a report and a video last month with evidence that the policy was still in force.
The organization said it had interviewed eight current and former female police officers and applicants in six cities, including two who said they had undergone virginity tests this year. Married women are not eligible to become police officers.
“We don’t know how widespread the practice is, and we don’t know if it’s nationwide,” said Andreas Harsono, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Indonesia.
“But it’s there,” he said, “and the testing is because of morality. The argument has been, ‘We don’t want prostitutes in the police force.’ ”
Indonesia is a socially conservative country where official state doctrine still encourages women to be homemakers and caregivers to their children.
The National Police chief, Gen. Sutarman, told journalists during a visit to West Java Province last month that female recruits did not undergo virginity tests. He said there was a required “medical examination,” but did not go into details, according to Detik, a leading Indonesian news portal.
Hours later, however, two high-ranking National Police officials in Jakarta were quoted by the local news media confirming that the police force does in fact conduct virginity tests on morality grounds.
While failing the virginity test does not disqualify a police applicant, she “may get fewer points if her hymen is not intact,” Brig. Gen. Arthur Tampi, head of the National Police’s medical and health center, told The Jakarta Post. “Still, she can pass the recruitment process.”
Local women’s and human rights groups counter that examining the hymen is not conclusive in determining virginity and have demanded an end to the practice. A hymen can be damaged through contact sports, horseback riding or an accident, and some babies are born without them, they say.
“The test is associated with prejudices about women’s morality, has no medical benefit in determining the health of an individual and causes trauma for those who undergo it,” the National Commission on Violence Against Women, an independent state body, said in a statement. “Similar tests are not carried out for men because of differences in anatomy, but also because sociologically, it is women who are considered the symbol of purity, not men.”
Men are not even asked about their virginity, women’s groups say.
Last year, the head of a local education office in South Sumatra Province suggested conducting virginity tests on high school girls to discourage promiscuity and thwart teenage prostitution. Thousands of Indonesians took to social media sites to criticize the idea, which was quickly dismissed by national government officials in Jakarta, the capital.
It is unclear how widespread the practice is. Col. Dede Rahayu, who runs the Police Women’s School in Jakarta, which conducts a seven-month training program for new recruits out of high school, said she did not have a virginity test when she applied to join the force in 1991.
She also said she had never heard of any of her students or staff members having to undergo one.
The policewomen “who said they had that test didn’t understand what a virginity test is,” she said, noting that all applicants do undergo a rectal exam and that they may have confused the two.
“Or maybe they want people to think they were still virgins when they joined,” she said, half in jest. “A single woman not being a virgin is taboo in Indonesia.”
Indonesian policewomen stood guard at a protest in Jakarta in 2012. Many female police recruits face virginity
inspections. Credit Adek Berry/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Col. Sri Rumiati made her career in the Indonesian National Police, but the day she was tested for it, in 1984, is one she would rather forget.
During a mandatory physical examination, a doctor led her into a private room, asked her to disrobe and administered a so-called virginity test, inserting two fingers to determine whether her hymen was intact.
“I was not comfortable with the test,” said Colonel Rumiati, who is now a police psychologist. “The test can be stressful on women and embarrassing.”
It mattered little that the doctor who tested her was a woman. It felt like a violation, she said, one that does not determine virginity, that has no comparable equivalent for male police recruits, and that does not achieve its ostensible goal: evaluating a recruit’s morality.
“You learn about the morality of a candidate from prosocial behavior testing,” or evaluating a person’s actions, she said. “It’s not about virginity.”
Women who apply to be police officers in Indonesia have been subjected to virginity testing since at least 1965, when the police force was placed under the command of the military. The Indonesian military has conducted virginity testing on female recruits for even longer, said Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya, a spokesman for the armed forces.
But the issue has set off heated debate here since Human Rights Watch, the international nongovernment organization, released a report and a video last month with evidence that the policy was still in force.
The organization said it had interviewed eight current and former female police officers and applicants in six cities, including two who said they had undergone virginity tests this year. Married women are not eligible to become police officers.
“We don’t know how widespread the practice is, and we don’t know if it’s nationwide,” said Andreas Harsono, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Indonesia.
“But it’s there,” he said, “and the testing is because of morality. The argument has been, ‘We don’t want prostitutes in the police force.’ ”
Indonesia is a socially conservative country where official state doctrine still encourages women to be homemakers and caregivers to their children.
The National Police chief, Gen. Sutarman, told journalists during a visit to West Java Province last month that female recruits did not undergo virginity tests. He said there was a required “medical examination,” but did not go into details, according to Detik, a leading Indonesian news portal.
Hours later, however, two high-ranking National Police officials in Jakarta were quoted by the local news media confirming that the police force does in fact conduct virginity tests on morality grounds.
While failing the virginity test does not disqualify a police applicant, she “may get fewer points if her hymen is not intact,” Brig. Gen. Arthur Tampi, head of the National Police’s medical and health center, told The Jakarta Post. “Still, she can pass the recruitment process.”
Local women’s and human rights groups counter that examining the hymen is not conclusive in determining virginity and have demanded an end to the practice. A hymen can be damaged through contact sports, horseback riding or an accident, and some babies are born without them, they say.
“The test is associated with prejudices about women’s morality, has no medical benefit in determining the health of an individual and causes trauma for those who undergo it,” the National Commission on Violence Against Women, an independent state body, said in a statement. “Similar tests are not carried out for men because of differences in anatomy, but also because sociologically, it is women who are considered the symbol of purity, not men.”
Men are not even asked about their virginity, women’s groups say.
Last year, the head of a local education office in South Sumatra Province suggested conducting virginity tests on high school girls to discourage promiscuity and thwart teenage prostitution. Thousands of Indonesians took to social media sites to criticize the idea, which was quickly dismissed by national government officials in Jakarta, the capital.
It is unclear how widespread the practice is. Col. Dede Rahayu, who runs the Police Women’s School in Jakarta, which conducts a seven-month training program for new recruits out of high school, said she did not have a virginity test when she applied to join the force in 1991.
She also said she had never heard of any of her students or staff members having to undergo one.
The policewomen “who said they had that test didn’t understand what a virginity test is,” she said, noting that all applicants do undergo a rectal exam and that they may have confused the two.
“Or maybe they want people to think they were still virgins when they joined,” she said, half in jest. “A single woman not being a virgin is taboo in Indonesia.”
