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Reuters/Enny Nuraheni
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The city council of Jember, East
Java's third largest urban area with a population of 300,000, plans to give a
virginity test to schoolgirls, local media reported. Those who fail won't have
a chance to become high school graduates.
The city council insists on the
regulation on the grounds that a number of secondary and high school students
allegedly indulge in pre-marital sexual activities. According to the data
gathered from local hospitals, around 10 percent of Jember’s approximately
1,200 HIV/AIDS patients are students, RT.com reports.
“What surprises us the most is they have had sex several times and with
different partners,” Habib Isa Mahdi, a lawmaker from the People’s
Conscience Party (Hanura), told Detik.com on Friday, according to the Jakarta
Globe. “Moreover, the Ministry of Social Affairs said that Indonesia is in
an emergency situation against pornography — that’s what drives us to make such
regulation,” he added.
A lawmaker from the National
Awakening Party (PKB), Mufti Ali, told East Java news portal BeritaJatim.com he
wanted to expand the proposal beyond Jember for it to become a provincial law.
“If they’re not virgins anymore, don’t let them pass,” he said. “It may sound like a joke, but it’s serious. It’s for the sake of the future.
“If they’re not virgins anymore, don’t let them pass,” he said. “It may sound like a joke, but it’s serious. It’s for the sake of the future.
“I agree that
virginity should become a [requirement] for graduation. I will tell my friends
to make it a regional regulation. We can’t only rely on their conscience to
behave well. There should also be pressure. If they’re pushed [to behave well],
that bad behavior can improve.”
The second-largest Muslim
organization in Indonesia, the Jember Chapter of Nadhlatul Ulama (NU), has
opposed the proposal.
“Virginity is
very sensitive. If a female student cannot meet the requirement, she’ll be the
subject of gossip in society,” MN Harisuddin,
Jember’s policy chief for NU, said on Thursday on the organization’s official
website.
“Say the bill
is passed, the test would be simple to conduct, but why is it only done for the
female students? How about the boys?” he wondered.
The lawmaker Mufti Ali brushed away
allegations of the regulation’s sexism.
“We can’t test
the boys,” he told the East Java news portal. “But at least
with the regulation, girls will be afraid [to have pre-marital sex]. The boys
will be prevented from the act because girls will become unwilling. This will
scare them, that if they [have sex], they will not graduate.”
Mufti said that victims of rape facing the test won't have to be concerned about the results. “The medical team will be able to tell [if they have been the victim of a sexual assault],” he noted.
Mufti said that victims of rape facing the test won't have to be concerned about the results. “The medical team will be able to tell [if they have been the victim of a sexual assault],” he noted.
Indonesia’s police often use
virginity tests as a pre-condition for employing its female officers. The
police force in Indonesia enforces strict requirements for women, who account
for only 3 percent of the 400,000 police officers in Indonesia.
In November, Human Rights Watch issued a
scathing report saying that female recruits hoping to join the police force
were still being subjected to the “degrading” ‘two-finger’ test. Many of the
women were made aware of the tests only moments before it was conducted.
Following widespread criticism, local authorities said in December they planned
to ban virginity tests for female civil servants.
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