Education chief Muhammad Rasyid,
of Prabumulih district in south Sumatra put forward the idea, describing it as
"an accurate way to protect children from prostitution and free sex".
He said he would use the city budget to begin tests early next year if MPs
approved the proposal.
"This is for their own
good," Rasyid said. "Every woman has the right to virginity … we
expect students not to commit negative acts."
The test would require female
senior school students aged 16 to 19 to have their hymen examined every year
until graduation. Boys, however, would undergo no investigation into whether
they had had sex.
The plan has met with some
support from local politicians, who said the test would help cut down on
"rampant" promiscuity in the district.
"Virginity is sacred, thus it's a disgrace
for a [female] student to lose her virginity before getting married,"
Hasrul Azwar of the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) told the Jakarta Post.
The proposal seems to be in response to increasing
cases of premarital sex, local website Kompas reported, including the recent arrest of six
senior high school students for alleged prostitution.
It is the third plan of its kind in
Muslim-majority Indonesia, where similar
drafts were proposed in West Java in 2007, and again in Sumatra in 2010, but
dropped after a public outcry.
Local and national MPs,
activists, rights groups and even the local Islamic advisory council have all
denounced Rasyid's plan as potentially denying female students the universal
right to education, in addition to targeting girls for an act that may not have
even been consensual, such as sexual assault.
"There are female students
who may have lost their virginity due to an accident − it is not their
fault," South Sumatra legislative council deputy speaker HA Djauhari told
local media.
The National Commission for Child
Protection also denounced the plan as an attempt to curry
"popularity" among religious conservatives, and called the move
"excessive".
"Loss of virginity is not
merely because of sexual activities," said Arist Merdeka Sirait of the
commission. "It could be caused by sports or health problems and many
other factors."
Just how the test would be
implemented − and what consequences it could incur were it to be passed −
is not yet clear, prompting local teachers to question whether those without
intact hymens would still be allowed to attend classes.
Indonesia's education and culture
minister, Muhammad Nuh, condemned the plan and said the district needed "a
wiser way to address the issue of teen sex".
Virginity is a prized possession
among many Indonesians, particularly in rural areas, and rapidly changing mores
in a population of 240 million can sometimes create tension among the country's
more conservative elders and its large, more moderate youth.
Last year saw lawmakers propose a ban on
miniskirts because "provocative clothing makes men do things", while
in the shariah-law province of Aceh, women have been ordered to sit side-saddle on motorbikes in order to better
obscure the "curves of a woman's body".
____________________________________________________
Press Release - 21 August 2013
Indonesia INSTITUT PEREMPUAN (WOMEN'S
INSTITUTE-INDONESIA) Response to the Virginity Tests Plan for High School Girls
Discrimination against women (including girls and young women) continues to
occur. This time, the public was startled by the news coming from the South
Sumatra's Prabumulih City Education Head Office (Indonesia), H.M. Rasyid, who
is carrying out the plan to impose mandatory virginity tests for prospective
high school girls as part of their entrance screening. Also, he wanted such
tests to be funded by the district's budget for the next year. According to
him, the objective of the policy is to suppress prostitution and human
trafficking (trafficking in persons, especially women and child)'s case
allegedly involving high school girls in the region. This policy immediately
received protests from various groups, especially high school girls and
parents, and even the Minister of Education and Culture, Mohammad Nuh, also
regretted this plan.
Actually the discourse of the mandatory virginity tests for prospective high
school girls as part of their entrance screening is not the first time has
happened. In 2010, the parliament members(legislators) of Jambi Province had
proposed the similar idea. In 2007, the Regent of Indramayu threw similar plans
of virginity tests to prevent circulation of pornographic VCDs.
The discourse of the virginity tests contains a series of policy issues. First,
the existence of discrimination against the high school girls where those who
found not longer virgin will suffer of a negative stigma and violated their
rights for continuing education, which against the Indonesian 1945
Constitution, Article 28B Paragraph (2) states that "Every child has the
right to survive, grow, and develop as well as the right to protection from
violence and discrimination" and Article 28C (1) states that" Every
person has the right to develop themselves by fulfilling their basic needs, are
entitled to an education and to benefit from science and technology, arts and
culture, in order to improve the quality of life and for the welfare of
mankind". Secondly, the policy also violates a woman(girl)'s body
autonomy. Women and girls have the rights to freedom over their own bodies.
Intervention through virginity tests is nothing but a harassment and violence
against women(and girls). Third, the idea of the virginity tests to regulated
which is coming from state apparatus/officials reflects a bias viewpoint on
discrimination against women by the state. In the case of prostitution and
trafficking in persons, state officials put "women/girls who are lack of
moral" as the root of the problem. State apparatus then produces discriminatory
policies such as virginity test. In this regard, the Government and Local
Government Law violated the Law No. 7 Year 1984 on the Ratification of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
which regulates that state are required to make appropriate regulations to
change the patterns of social and cultural behavior of men and women with a
view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other
practices which is based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of
either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women (Article 5,
letter a). Moreover, it also violated the Presidential Decree No. 9 Year 2000
on Gender Mainstreaming in National Development which has been followed in
particular in the field of education in the form of the National Education
Minister Regulation No. 84 Year 2008 on Guidelines for Gender Mainstreaming in
Education. Fourth, contrary to the policy direction of education for the whole
child personality development and respect for human rights values. The
Convention on the Rights of the Child which has been ratified by the
Presidential Decree No. 36 Year 1990 confirms that one child's education should
be directed to the development of the child's personality, talents, mental and
physical abilities to their fullest potential, and the development of respect
for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the principles enshrined in the
UN Charter (Article 29 paragraph (1)). Furthermore, this is also regulated in
the Law No. 23 Year 2002 on the Child Protection. Enforcing mandatory virginity
test as a way of pressing the case of prostitution and human trafficking can be
seen as a form of punishment against children alleged to have sexual
intercourse and/or are victims of sexual violence. This kind of plan based on
narrow-minded moral view should strongly be criticized and questioned its
constitutionality. Education should continue to build the personality and
character of the child, as part of their human rights fulfillment, and not become
a mean of destroying the future of children.
Looking at the above conditions, we, INSTITUT PEREMPUAN (WOMEN'S INSTITUTE)
strongly demanded the following:
1. The government to use its authority
related to the guidance and supervision of regional government(provincial and
district/city) in order to encourage the birth of regional policies related to
the fulfillment of women's human rights and elimination of discrimination
against women and to prevent and undo the discriminatory policies;
2. The government to use its authority
related guidance and supervision of the regional administration, to cancel the
plan and idea such as mandatory virginity test for high school girls, coming
from government officials at the local level (provincial and district/city)
3. The local government at provincial and district/city, particularly from
Prabumulih to stop the plan to carry out such similar plan in imposing
virginity tests on high school girls.
For Justice, Equality, and Humanity,
R. Valentina Sagala, SE., SH.,
MH.
Chairperson of Executive Board
Demi Keadilan, Kesetaraan, dan Kemanusiaan,
For Justice, Equality, and Humanity,
INSTITUT PEREMPUAN - WOMEN'S INSTITUTE
Jawa Barat, INDONESIA
Tel./Fax. +62.22.2516378
Email: institut_perempuan@yahoo.com
Website: www.institutperempuan.or.id