WUNRN
http://www.trust.org/item/20150211131717-ga2cc/?source=hpMostPopular
Indonesia
- Lawmakers Drop Plan for Schoolgirl Virginity Tests after Uproar
Students at an Islamic boarding
school pray at a mosque on the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan
in Medan, North Sumatra June 29, 2014. REUTERS/Y.T Haryono
Author: Alisa Tang
– 11 February 2015
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters
Foundation) - Indonesian officials have dropped a plan to require female
students to pass virginity tests in order to graduate from high school and
apologised after sparking a public outcry, human rights campaigners said.
Habib Isa Mahdi, a lawmaker from
Jember in East Java province, said last week that the district council was
drafting a "good conduct" regulation that would include a virginity
test as many high school students were having pre-marital sex.
Indonesia, home to the world's
largest Muslim population, last year admitted conducting virginity tests on
women seeking to join the police or military even though the practice has no
scientific validity, according to the World Health Authority.
The Jember proposal sparked
widespread condemnation, although local lawmakers in East Java's third largest
urban area with a population of 330,000 defended the move and hoped it could be
expanded across the Jember area of 2.3 million people.
"If they're not virgins any
more, don't let them pass," local lawmaker Mufti Ali was quoted in local
media as telling news site Berita.Jatim.com.
"We can't test the boys ...
but at least with the regulation, girls will be afraid. The boys will be
prevented from the act because girls will become unwilling."
Indonesia's top Muslim clerics
opposed the proposal, saying it discriminated against female students and was
contrary to Islamic teachings.
Previous attempts to introduce
virginity tests for female students, in South Sumatra in 2013 and in West Java
in 2007, also backfired.
Many Indonesians place a high
value on virginity, but pre-marital sex is not uncommon among the younger
generation. The age of consent for heterosexual sexual activity is 19 for males
and 16 for females.
Amid public outrage, Jember's council
deputy speaker Ayub Junaidi backed away from the proposal and apologised.
"On behalf of the Jember
Consultative Council we'd like to apologise to the public, especially to all
women and girls across Indonesia," he told local news site Kompas.com.
Campaign group Human Rights Watch
welcomed the Jember lawmakers' U-turn but spokesman Andreas Harsono said it was
alarming that the test was still used by the police and military.
Indonesia's police force came
under fire three months ago for admitting it administered virginity tests for
female police applicants to see if their hymen was intact. A police spokesman
said the tests were part of a routine health check but there was no requirement
for women to be virgins and no discrimination.
HRW has called for an end to the
Indonesian government's tolerance of female virginity tests.
"It should be stopped ... it
is degrading. It is discriminatory. It is cruel," Harsono told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation by phone from Jakarta.