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 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.” 
  
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 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. 
  
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 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.” ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. 
  
 This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. ||||| Expand A police cadet directs traffic in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is one of 7,000 female police cadets recruited in April 2014. © 2014 Andreas Harsono/Human Rights Watch 
  
 (Jakarta) – The Indonesian government subjects female applicants for Indonesia’s National Police to discriminatory and degrading “virginity tests,” Human Rights Watch said today. 
  
 Human Rights Watch interviewed female police and police applicants in six Indonesian cities who had undergone the test, two of them in 2014. Applicants who “failed” were not necessarily expelled from the force, but all of the women described the test as painful and traumatic. Policewomen have raised the issue with senior police officials, who have at times claimed the practice has been discontinued. But the test is listed as a requirement for women applicants on the official police recruitment website, and Human Rights Watch interviews suggest it is still being widely applied. 
  
 “The Indonesian National Police’s use of ‘virginity tests’ is a discriminatory practice that harms and humiliates women,” said Nisha Varia, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Police authorities in Jakarta need to immediately and unequivocally abolish the test, and then make certain that all police recruiting stations nationwide stop administering it.” 
  
 The tests contravene National Police principles that recruitment must be both “nondiscriminatory” and “humane,” and violate the international human rights to equality, nondiscrimination, and privacy. Coerced “virginity tests” can also constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment prohibited under international law. 
  
 Between May and October 2014, Human Rights Watch interviewed eight current and former policewomen and applicants, as well as police doctors, a police recruitment evaluator, a National Police Commission member, and women’s rights activists. Interviews were conducted in the cities of Bandung, Jakarta, Padang, Pekanbaru, Makassar, and Medan. All of the women who had undergone the test said it was applied to all other women in their police class as well. 
  
 The “virginity tests” are conducted under Chief Police Regulation No. 5/2009 on Health Inspection (Pemeriksaan Kesehatan) Guidelines for Police Candidates. Article 36 of the regulation requires female police academy applicants to undergo an “obstetrics and gynecology” examination. While the regulation does not specify that a “virginity test” is to be administered as part of the exam, two senior policewomen told Human Rights Watch that it has long been the practice. The test is given early in the recruitment process as part of the applicants’ physical exam. Police Medical and Health Center (Pusat Kedokteran dan Kesehatan) personnel conduct the tests primarily in police-operated hospitals. Human Rights Watch found that the examination has included the discredited and degrading “two-finger test” to determine whether female applicants’ hymens are intact. 
  
 A memo produced in 2012 by an international organization that has assisted with National Police Reform Training quotes a July 2008 letter by a senior National Police official to the elite Police Academy in Semarang in which he describes the need to inspect female candidates’ hymens to ensure their virginity. In October, National Police High Commissioner Sri Rumiati told Human Rights Watch that in 2010 the then-head of police personnel, Brig. Gen. Sigit Sudarmanto, agreed to abolish virginity testing. A police general at the Medical Center claimed the test was no longer applied. 
  
 There is little evidence, however, that the National Police have taken steps to stop the tests. Indonesia’s National Police jobs website states, as of November 5, 2014, that, “In addition to the medical and physical tests, women who want to be policewomen must also undergo virginity tests. So all women who want to become policewomen should keep their virginity.” Married women are not eligible for the job. 
  
 The administration of such tests is a longstanding practice – one retired police officer said her class of female recruits in 1965 had to undergo the test – and has lasting effects. As one woman told Human Rights Watch, recalling her test in 2008: “Entering the virginity test examination room was really upsetting. I feared that after they performed the test I would not be a virgin anymore. It really hurt. My friend even fainted because ... it really hurt, really hurt.” 
  
 The National Police plans a 50 percent increase in the number of policewomen, to 21,000 by December. With a force of about 400,000 police officers, the additional hiring will increase the percentage of women on the force from 3 percent to 5 percent. 
  
 In April, the National Police initiated an unprecedented mass recruitment drive in which 7,000 female cadets have undergone a special seven-month training program in eight police training facilities on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. 
  
 Yefri Heriyani, director of the women’s rights group Nurani Perempuan in Padang, West Sumatra, who has encountered numerous female police applicants over the past 12 years, said that the virginity tests had left many of those women traumatized: “These policewomen experience trauma and stress while doing the virginity tests, yet [the National Police make] no clear attempt to help them recover. No effort is made to help them out of their stress and trauma. Consequently, it will affect their lives in the long term. Many of them blame themselves for taking the test.” 
  
 Human Rights Watch has documented the use of abusive “virginity tests” by police in several other countries including Egypt, India, and Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch has previously criticized calls for “virginity tests” for school girls in Indonesia, both as human rights violations and for being subjective and unscientific. 
  
 “So-called virginity tests are discriminatory and a form of gender-based violence – not a measure of women’s eligibility for a career in the police,” Varia said. “This pernicious practice not only keeps able women out of the police, but deprives all Indonesians of a police force with the most genuinely qualified officers.” 
  
 A Longtime Practice 
  
 A retired policewoman, Dr. Irawati Harsono, now a lecturer at the Graduate School of Police Sciences in Jakarta, told Human Rights Watch that she had expressed her objections to the “virginity test” with the National Police’s then-head of personnel, Mochammad Sanoesi, in 1980. She said Sanoesi, who became the National Police chief in 1986 before retiring in 1991, did not respond to her call for abolishing the practice. 
  
 A memo produced in 2012 by an international organization that has assisted with National Police Reform Training quotes a July 2008 letter by a senior National Police official to the elite Police Academy in Semarang in which he describes the need to inspect female candidates’ hymens to ensure their virginity. 
  
 The requirement has spawned numerous books and videos by so-called specialists who advise female police applicants on taking the “test.” An Indonesian blogger, Anhar Wahyu, in his book Buku Persiapan Masuk TNI dan POLRI (“Preparation to Enter the Armed Forces and National Police”), provides tips to female applicants on how to ensure they pass the virginity test as well as how to respond if they “fail” the test. 
  
 International Law 
  
 “Virginity tests” have been recognized internationally as a violation of human rights, particularly the prohibition against “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” under article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and article 16 of the Convention against Torture, both of which Indonesia has ratified. 
  
 The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that monitors compliance with the covenant, states in a General Comment that the aim of article 7 is “to protect both the dignity and the physical and mental integrity of the individual.” Article 7 relates not only to acts that cause physical pain, but also to acts that cause mental suffering to the victim. Coerced virginity testing compromises the dignity of women, and violates their physical and mental integrity. 
  
 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other human rights treaties prohibit discrimination against women. Because men are not subjected to virginity testing, the practice constitutes discrimination against women as it has the effect or purpose of denying women on a basis of equality with men the right to work as police officers. 
  
 Indonesian Police Applicants Speak Out on ‘Virginity Testing’ 
  
 A 24-year-old woman who took the test in Makassar in 2008 told Human Rights Watch: 
  
 For the test, 20 applicants were told to enter an examination room in Makassar’s Bhayangkara police hospital. We were ordered to strip to our underwear in three minutes. The medical staff then checked our eyes, nose, teeth, spine alignment, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids. 
  
 Then we were told to enter a separate room without a door. The medical staff performed the “two-finger” test on two candidates [at a time] in the room. 
  
 Even just entering the room was very scary because we had to undress while there were 20 people in the room. We didn’t know each other. Entering the virginity test examination room was really upsetting. I feared that after they performed the test I would not be a virgin anymore. They inserted two fingers. It really hurt. My friend even fainted because ... it really hurt, really hurt. 
  
 A 19-year-old woman who took the test in Pekanbaru in 2014 told Human Rights Watch: 
  
  
  
 I did the health test in a hall at the State Police School (Sekolah Polisi Negara) building. They put up a curtain so that outsiders could not look inside. My group of about 20 girls was asked to enter the hall and was asked to take off our clothes, including our bras and underpants. It was humiliating. Only those who had menstruation can keep [wearing] underpants. 
  
 Our group was the last one that day. The medical staff was probably already exhausted. … We’re asked to sit on a table for women giving birth. A female doctor did the virginity test ... the “two-finger” test. 
  
 I was not nervous. I am confident that I am still a virgin. When the virginity test ended, we were asked to put on our clothes. 
  
 I don’t want to remember those bad experiences. It was humiliating. Why should we take off our clothes in front of strangers? Yes, [the virginity testers] were women, but they were total strangers. It was discriminatory. It is not necessary. I think it should be stopped. 
  
  
  
 An 18-year-old woman who took the test in Bandung in 2013 told Human Rights Watch: 
  
  
  
 I was told that there was a health examination as a prerequisite to enter the police force. I learned about the virginity test only when I was about to take the physical examination and [was told] that there is an “internal examination.” At first I didn’t know that it was the virginity test. 
  
 The selection committee told the applicants just before the “internal examination” that we could resign from the selection process if we did not want to go through with the virginity test. But, most of us had gone through so much preparation for the requirements [to apply to be a policewoman]. I felt I had no power to object because if I refused to undergo the virginity test, I would not be able to enter the police force. 
  
 Twenty female applicants were told to enter a hall for the physical examination. They were then told to enter a room and told to lie down. The medical staffer, a female, then carried out the “two-finger” test. I am humiliated and scared for having to do the virginity test. There were candidates who fainted due to the stress. 
  
  
  
 High Commissioner Rumiati, the police psychologist now teaching at the Graduate School of Police Sciences in Jakarta, told Human Rights Watch: 
  
  
  
 I joined the police in 1984 via student military service. I underwent the virginity test in the Army hospital in Semarang because, between 1965 and 2002, the police and the military were part of a single command. 
  
 Later as a psychologist, I became involved in the police recruitment process and protested internally against the virginity test for female cadets. I love my institution. I want the National Police to uphold the laws. Many Indonesian laws – the Constitution, the 1984 law to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the 1999 human rights law – ban discrimination against women. How can the National Police enforce Indonesian laws when they themselves are not obeying the laws of the land? 
  
 In 1997, I participated in a parliamentary hearing on this practice along with women’s rights defender Nursyahbani Katjasungkana. Unfortunately we did not succeed in having parliament recommend banning the test. 
  
 In 2010, Brig. Gen. Sigit Sudarmanto, then human resources assistant to the police chief, organized a technical meeting on the recruitment of new police cadets. I raised the issue again, asking all the police recruitment teams to stop the virginity test. But my colleagues, including those working for the Medical and Health Center, opposed me on moral grounds. They said, “Do we want to have prostitutes joining the police?” 
  
 Is there scientific evidence that a woman who is not a virgin will be less productive than a virgin? Is there scientific evidence that a woman who is not a virgin will be automatically worse than a virgin? The meeting concluded with General Sigit asking that the test be stopped. I don’t know why it’s still taking place. 
  
  
  
 Veryanto Sitohang, executive director of Aliansi Sumut Bersatu, a nongovernmental organization based in Medan, and an external member of the North Sumatra police recruitment team in 2006-2008, told Human Rights Watch: 
  
  
  
 I was working on women’s and children’s rights when the police commander in [North Sumatra’s] Dairi regency nominated me to be one of a five-member external team in recruiting police cadets, male and female. The other [team] members included a doctor, a psychiatrist, and academics. 
  
 We learned that there was a virginity test as part of the process [for women]. The test was conducted at the Bhayangkara police hospital in Medan. It was supervised by police doctors in Bhayangkara. I recommended to the internal team, whose members are all police officers, not to do [the test]. It’s obviously a violation of these young women’s rights. It should be stopped. The internal team said they would consider my input, but that [the test] was one of the criteria established by National Police headquarters. They did it anyway. I wrote my objection. But apparently it did not stop the degrading test. ||||| An activist has urged National Police chief Sutarman to immediately issue a regulation to abolish virginity tests for female police applicants. 
  
 “There is a need to formally abolish virginity tests during the screening of female police applicants to show progress within the National Police. This measure will also protect women from discrimination,” National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) chairperson Yuniyanti Chuzaifah said as quoted by Antara news agency in Semarang on Tuesday. 
  
 She made the comments in response to ongoing polemics on virginity tests in the health examination procedure during the recruitment of female police officers. 
  
 Yuniyanti said virginity tests were no longer relevant for female police applicants. Moreover, she said, the National Police had stated that such tests did not determine whether a female candidate would pass the National Police recruitment process. 
  
 “Therefore, Komnas Perempuan urges the National Police chief to issue a written regulation on the abolition of the virginity test. Then, debate on the issue should stop,” she said. 
  
 The women’s rights activist went on to say many women had lost their virginity in sexual assault. 
  
 “How can she lose her right to become a female police officer because of a virginity test while a male applicant is not subject to the same test? That’s discriminatory,” said Yuniyanti. 
  
 Earlier, the National Police’s medical and health center head, Arthur Tampi, asserted that no female police applicant failed the recruitment process solely because she was no longer a virgin. 
  
 “An applicant may get fewer points if her hymen is not intact; still, she can pass the recruitment process,” he said in Jakarta on Friday. 
  
 Arthur said health and medical tests, including the virginity test, were required to make sure applicants could take part in all police educational activities. 
  
 The virginity test is carried out based on National Police Regulation No.5/2009 on health examination guidelines for police candidates. 
  
 Article 36 of the regulation stipulates that a female police officer cadet must undergo an obstetric and gynecology examination. (ebf)(+++) |||||
What is a summary?
– Women hoping to become police officers in Indonesia need to be strong, healthy—and should have an intact hymen, officials say, to determine whether or not they are moral. The revelation has sparked a new round of debates about women's rights in this highly conservative nation, the New York Times reports. "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," says an independent state body on violence against women. Critics also say that the tests (which involve a doctor inserting fingers inside a woman) are discriminatory, traumatic, and inconclusive considering that hymens can be damaged by other means, like horseback riding or contact sports. A Human Rights Watch report and video sparked the debate last month about such tests, which have been going on for 50 years or more under the radar. "We don’t know how widespread the practice is, and we don’t know if it’s nationwide," says an HRW researcher. "But it’s there. ... The argument has been, 'We don’t want prostitutes in the police force.'" A top police official tells the Jakarta Post that a failed virginity test only hurts a candidate's chances rather than disqualifying her, but a woman's rights activist says that's all the more reason to abolish the practice. Last year, an education official in Indonesia proposed giving high-school girls virginity tests to thwart prostitution and promiscuity, but the notion was scrapped after widespread outrage on social media sites.
Artikel: Foto JAKARTA, Indonesien – Överste Sri Rumiati gjorde sin karriär inom den indonesiska nationella polisen, men den dag hon testades för det, 1984, är en som hon helst skulle glömma. Under en obligatorisk fysisk undersökning ledde en läkare in henne i ett privat rum, bad henne att lösgöra sig och administrerade ett så kallat jungfrudomstest, och satte in två fingrar för att avgöra om hennes mödomshinnor var intakta. — Jag var inte bekväm med provet, sade överste Rumiati, som nu är polispsykolog. – Testet kan vara stressande på kvinnor och pinsamt. Det spelade ingen roll att läkaren som testade henne var en kvinna. Det kändes som en kränkning, sade hon, en som inte avgör oskuld, som inte har någon jämförbar motsvarighet för manliga polisrekryter, och som inte uppnår sitt skenbara mål: att utvärdera en rekryters moral. “Du lär dig om moralen hos en kandidat från prosocialt beteende testning,” eller utvärdera en persons handlingar, sade hon. “Det handlar inte om oskuld.” Annons Fortsätt läsa huvudberättelsen Kvinnor som ansöker om att bli poliser i Indonesien har utsatts för oskuldstest sedan åtminstone 1965, då poliskåren ställdes under befäl av militären. Den indonesiska militären har genomfört jungfrudomstest på kvinnliga rekryter ännu längre, sade generalmajor Fuad Basya, talesman för krigsmakten. Men frågan har satt igång en het debatt här sedan Human Rights Watch, den internationella icke-statliga organisationen, släppte en rapport och en video förra månaden med bevis för att politiken fortfarande var i kraft. Organisationen sade att den hade intervjuat åtta nuvarande och tidigare kvinnliga poliser och sökande i sex städer, däribland två som sade att de hade genomgått jungfrudomsprov i år. Gifta kvinnor kan inte bli poliser. – Vi vet inte hur utbredd praxisen är, och vi vet inte om den är rikstäckande, säger Andreas Harsono, forskare för Human Rights Watch i Indonesien. — Men det är där, sade han, och prövningen beror på moralen. Argumentet har varit: ”Vi vill inte ha prostituerade i poliskåren.” Indonesien är ett socialt konservativt land där den officiella statsdoktrinen fortfarande uppmuntrar kvinnor att vara husmödrar och vårdgivare för sina barn. Nationalpolischefen, general Sutarman, berättade för journalister under ett besök i West Java Province förra månaden att kvinnliga rekryter inte genomgick oskuldstest. Han sade att det fanns en nödvändig "medicinsk undersökning", men gick inte in på detaljer, enligt Detik, en ledande indonesiska nyhetsportal. Timmar senare citerades dock två högt uppsatta rikspolistjänstemän i Jakarta av lokala nyhetsmedier som bekräftar att poliskåren i själva verket utför jungfrudomsprov av moralskäl. Annons Fortsätt läsa huvudberättelsen Medan misslyckas oskuldstestet inte diskvalificera en polis sökande, hon “kan få färre poäng om hennes mödomshinna inte är intakt,” Brig. General Arthur Tampi, chef för Nationalpolisens läkar - och hälsovårdscentral, berättade för The Jakarta Post. – Ändå kan hon klara rekryteringsprocessen. Lokala kvinnor och människorättsgrupper kontrar att det inte är avgörande att undersöka mödomshinnorna när det gäller att avgöra oskulden och har krävt att praktiken ska upphöra. En mödomshinna kan skadas genom kontaktsporter, ridning eller en olycka, och vissa barn föds utan dem, säger de. – Testet är förknippat med fördomar om kvinnors moral, har ingen medicinsk nytta av att avgöra en individs hälsa och orsakar trauma för dem som genomgår det, säger National Commission on Violence Against Women, ett oberoende statligt organ, i ett uttalande. – Liknande tester utförs inte för män på grund av skillnader i anatomi, utan också för att sociologiskt är det kvinnor som anses vara renhetens symbol, inte män. Män blir inte ens tillfrågade om sin oskuld, säger kvinnogrupper. Förra året föreslog chefen för en lokal utbildningsbyrå i södra Sumatraprovinsen att man skulle göra oskuldstester på gymnasieflickor för att avskräcka från promiskuitet och motverka tonårsprostitution. Tusentals indoneser tog sig till sociala medier för att kritisera idén, som snabbt avfärdades av nationella regeringstjänstemän i huvudstaden Jakarta. Det är oklart hur utbrett bruket är. Överste Dede Rahayu, som driver Polisens kvinnoskola i Jakarta, som genomför ett sju månader långt utbildningsprogram för nya rekryter utanför gymnasiet, sade att hon inte hade ett jungfrudomsprov när hon ansökte om att få ansluta sig till styrkan 1991. Hon sade också att hon aldrig hade hört talas om att någon av hennes elever eller anställda måste genomgå en sådan. Poliskvinnorna “som sade att de hade det testet förstod inte vad en oskuld test är,” sade hon, notera att alla sökande genomgår en rektal examen och att de kan ha förväxlat de två. — Eller kanske de vilja, att folk skola tro, att de ännu voro jungfrur, när de slöto sig till varandra, sade hon, halvt på skämt. “En ensamstående kvinna som inte är oskuld är tabu i Indonesien.” • • Betyg är tillgänglig när videon har hyrts. Denna funktion är inte tillgänglig just nu. Försök igen senare. Utöka En poliskadett leder trafiken i Jakarta i Indonesien. Hon är en av 7 000 kvinnliga poliskadetter som rekryterades i april 2014. © 2014 Andreas Harsono/Human Rights Watch (Jakarta) – Den indonesiska regeringen utsätts kvinnliga sökande till Indonesiens nationella polis för diskriminerande och förnedrande “jungfrutester”, Human Rights Watch sade idag. Human Rights Watch intervjuade kvinnliga polis- och polissökande i sex indonesiska städer som hade genomgått testet, två av dem 2014. Sökande som ”misslyckades” uteslöts inte nödvändigtvis från styrkan, men alla kvinnor beskrev testet som smärtsamt och traumatiskt. Poliskvinnor har tagit upp frågan med högre polistjänstemän, som tidvis har hävdat att bruket har lagts ned. Men testet listas som ett krav för kvinnliga sökande på polisens officiella rekryteringswebbplats, och Human Rights Watch intervjuer tyder på att det fortfarande tillämpas allmänt. “Indonesiska nationella polisens användning av ‘oskuldstest’ är en diskriminerande praxis som skadar och förödmjukar kvinnor,” sade Nisha Varia, associera kvinnors rättigheter direktör på Human Rights Watch. “Polisen myndigheter i Jakarta måste omedelbart och entydigt avskaffa testet, och sedan se till att alla polisrekrytering stationer rikstäckande sluta administrera det.” Testerna strider mot nationella polisen principer att rekrytering måste vara både “icke-diskriminerande” och “human”, och kränker de internationella mänskliga rättigheterna till jämlikhet, icke-diskriminering och integritet. Tvångsförsök kan också utgöra grym, omänsklig eller förnedrande behandling som är förbjuden enligt internationell rätt. Mellan maj och oktober 2014 intervjuade Human Rights Watch åtta nuvarande och tidigare poliskvinnor och sökande, samt polisläkare, en polisrekryteringsutvärderare, en medlem av nationella poliskommissionen och kvinnorättsaktivister. Intervjuer genomfördes i städerna Bandung, Jakarta, Padang, Pekanbaru, Makassar och Medan. Alla de kvinnor som hade genomgått testet sade att det tillämpades på alla andra kvinnor i deras polisklass också. ”Virginitetsproven” utförs enligt polischefsförordning nr. 5/2009 om hälsoinspektion (Pemeriksaan Kesehatan) Riktlinjer för poliskandidater. Enligt artikel 36 i förordningen skall sökande till kvinnliga polisakademier genomgå en ”obstetrik- och gynekologiexamen”. Även om förordningen inte specificerar att ett ”jungfrutest” ska administreras som en del av examen, två högre poliskvinnor berättade Human Rights Watch att det länge har varit praxis. Testet ges tidigt i rekryteringsprocessen som en del av de sökandes fysiska tentamen. Polisens läkar- och hälsocentral (Pusat Kedokteran dan Kesehatan) genomför testerna främst på polisdrivna sjukhus. Human Rights Watch fann att undersökningen har inkluderat den misskrediterade och förnedrande “tvåfingertest” för att avgöra om kvinnliga sökandes mödomshinnor är intakta. En promemoria som producerades 2012 av en internationell organisation som har assisterat med nationell polisreformutbildning citerar ett juli 2008 brev från en högre nationell polistjänsteman till elitpolisakademin i Semarang där han beskriver behovet av att inspektera kvinnliga kandidaters mödomshinnor för att säkerställa deras oskuld. I oktober berättade rikspolischefen Sri Rumiati för Human Rights Watch att 2010 var den dåvarande chefen för polispersonalen, Brig. General Sigit Sudarmanto, gick med på att avskaffa oskuldsprövningen. En polisgeneral vid Medicinska centret hävdade att testet inte längre tillämpades. Det finns dock få bevis för att rikspolisen har vidtagit åtgärder för att stoppa testerna. I Indonesiens nationella polisbyrås webbplats för arbete sägs det den 5 november 2014 att ” Förutom de medicinska och fysiska testerna måste kvinnor som vill bli poliskvinnor också genomgå oskuldstester. Så alla kvinnor som vill bli poliskvinnor bör behålla sin oskuld.” Gifta kvinnor är inte berättigade till jobbet. Administrationen av sådana tester är en mångårig praxis – en pensionerad polis sade att hennes klass kvinnliga rekryter 1965 var tvungna att genomgå testet – och har bestående effekter. Som en kvinna sade till Human Rights Watch, när hon kom ihåg sitt prov 2008: ” Det var verkligen upprörande att gå in i provrummet för oskuldsprövning. Jag var rädd att jag inte skulle vara oskuld längre. Det gjorde verkligen ont. Min vän svimmade till och med för att ... det gjorde verkligen ont, verkligen ont.” Nationalpolisen planerar en 50 procents ökning av antalet poliskvinnor, till 21 000 i december. Med en styrka på omkring 400 000 poliser kommer den ytterligare rekryteringen att öka andelen kvinnor i styrkan från 3 procent till 5 procent. I april inledde Nationalpolisen en aldrig tidigare skådad massrekryteringskampanj där 7 000 kvinnliga kadetter genomgått ett särskilt sjumånadersutbildningsprogram i åtta polisutbildningsanläggningar på de indonesiska öarna Java och Bali. Yefri Heriyani, chef för gruppen för kvinnors rättigheter Nurani Perempuan i Padang i västra Sumatra, som har stött på många kvinnliga polissökande under de senaste 12 åren, sade att oskuldstesterna hade gjort många av dessa kvinnor traumatiserade: ” Dessa poliskvinnor upplever trauma och stress under oskuldsproven, men [den nationella polisen] gör inga tydliga försök att hjälpa dem att återhämta sig. Det görs inga ansträngningar för att hjälpa dem ur deras stress och trauma. Följaktligen kommer det att påverka deras liv på lång sikt. Många av dem klandrar sig själva för att ha tagit testet.” Human Rights Watch har dokumenterat användningen av kränkande “oskuldstest” av polisen i flera andra länder, inklusive Egypten, Indien och Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch har tidigare kritiserat krav på ”jungfrutester” för skolflickor i Indonesien, både som brott mot mänskliga rättigheter och för att vara subjektiv och ovetenskaplig. – Så kallade oskuldstester är diskriminerande och en form av könsrelaterat våld – inte ett mått på kvinnors lämplighet för en karriär inom polisen, sade Varia. “Denna fördärvliga praxis inte bara håller kompetenta kvinnor utanför polisen, men berövar alla indonesier en polisstyrka med de mest genuint kvalificerade officerare.” En lång tid Practice En pensionerad poliskvinna, Dr. Irawati Harsono, nu en föreläsare vid Graduate School of Police Sciences i Jakarta, berättade Human Rights Watch att hon hade uttryckt sina invändningar mot “oskuldstest” med Nationalpolisens då chef för personal, Mochammad Sanoesi, 1980. Hon sade att Sanoesi, som blev rikspolischef 1986 innan hon gick i pension 1991, inte svarade på hennes uppmaning att avskaffa bruket. En promemoria som producerades 2012 av en internationell organisation som har assisterat med nationell polisreformutbildning citerar ett juli 2008 brev från en högre nationell polistjänsteman till elitpolisakademin i Semarang där han beskriver behovet av att inspektera kvinnliga kandidaters mödomshinnor för att säkerställa deras oskuld. Kravet har gett upphov till många böcker och videor av så kallade specialister som ger kvinnliga polissökande råd om att ta “testet.” En indonesisk bloggare, Anhar Wahyu, i sin bok Buku Persiapan Masuk TNI dan POLRI (”Förberedelse för att gå in i försvarsmakten och nationell polis”), ger tips till kvinnliga sökande om hur de ska se till att de klarar oskuldstestet samt hur de ska svara om de ”underkänner” testet. Internationella lagens ”virginity tests” har erkänts internationellt som en kränkning av de mänskliga rättigheterna, särskilt förbudet mot ”grov, omänsklig eller förnedrande behandling” enligt artikel 7 i den internationella konventionen om medborgerliga och politiska rättigheter och artikel 16 i konventionen mot tortyr, som Indonesien har ratificerat. FN:s kommitté för mänskliga rättigheter, det internationella expertorgan som övervakar att förbundet efterlevs, säger i en allmän kommentar att syftet med artikel 7 är "att skydda både värdighet och fysisk och psykisk integritet hos individen". Artikel 7 handlar inte bara om handlingar som orsakar fysisk smärta, utan också om handlingar som orsakar psykiskt lidande för offret. Tvångsprövning av oskuld äventyrar kvinnors värdighet och kränker deras fysiska och mentala integritet. Konventionen om avskaffande av all slags diskriminering av kvinnor och andra fördrag om mänskliga rättigheter förbjuder diskriminering av kvinnor. Eftersom män inte utsätts för oskuldsprövning utgör bruket diskriminering av kvinnor då det har till effekt eller syfte att neka kvinnor på grund av jämställdhet med män rätten att arbeta som poliser. Indonesiska polissökande talar ut om “Virginity Testing” En 24-årig kvinna som tog testet i Makassar 2008 berättade Human Rights Watch: För testet, 20 sökande uppmanades att gå in i ett undersökningsrum i Makassar Bhayangkara polissjukhus. Vi beordrades att klä av oss underkläderna om tre minuter. Läkarpersonalen kontrollerade sedan våra ögon, näsa, tänder, ryggradsinriktning, åderbråck och hemorrojder. Sedan blev vi tillsagda att gå in i ett separat rum utan dörr. Den medicinska personalen utförde ”tvåfingertestet” på två kandidater [i taget] i rummet. Det var läskigt att bara gå in i rummet, för vi var tvungna att klä av oss medan det var 20 personer i rummet. Vi kände inte varandra. Det var verkligen upprörande att gå in i oskuldsprovrummet. Jag var rädd att jag inte skulle vara oskuld längre. De satte in två fingrar. Det gjorde verkligen ont. Min vän svimmade för att det gjorde ont. En 19-årig kvinna som gjorde testet i Pekanbaru 2014 berättade Human Rights Watch: Jag gjorde hälsotestet i en hall på Statens polisskolas (Sekolah Polisi Negara) byggnad. De satte upp en gardin så att utomstående inte kunde titta in. Min grupp på omkring 20 flickor ombads att gå in i salen och ombads att ta av oss våra kläder, däribland våra behåar och kalsonger. Det var förödmjukande. Endast de som hade menstruation kan ha kalsonger. Vår grupp var den sista den dagen. Den medicinska personalen var förmodligen redan utmattad. ... Vi ombeds att sitta på ett bord för kvinnor som föder barn. En kvinnlig läkare gjorde oskuldstestet... tvåfingertestet. Jag var inte nervös. Jag är säker på att jag fortfarande är oskuld. När oskuldsprovet var slut, blev vi ombedda att ta på oss våra kläder. Jag vill inte komma ihåg dessa dåliga erfarenheter. Det var förödmjukande. Varför ska vi klä av oss inför främlingar? Ja, [oskuldstestarna] var kvinnor, men de var helt främmande. Det var diskriminerande. Det är inte nödvändigt. Jag tycker att det borde stoppas. En 18-årig kvinna som gjorde testet i Bandung 2013 berättade för Human Rights Watch: Jag fick höra att det fanns en hälsoundersökning som en förutsättning för att komma in i poliskåren. Jag lärde mig om oskuldstestet först när jag skulle ta den fysiska undersökningen och [var tillsagd] att det finns en ”inre undersökning”. Först visste jag inte att det var oskuldsprovet. Urvalskommittén sade till de sökande strax före den ”interna prövningen” att vi kunde avgå från urvalsprocessen om vi inte ville gå igenom oskuldsprovet. Men de flesta av oss hade gått igenom så mycket förberedelser för kraven [att ansöka om att bli poliskvinna]. Jag kände att jag inte hade någon makt att invända, för om jag vägrade att genomgå oskuldsprovet, skulle jag inte kunna komma in i poliskåren. Tjugo kvinnliga sökande uppmanades att gå in i en sal för den fysiska undersökningen. De blev då tillsagda att gå in i ett rum och uppmanades att lägga sig ner. Den sjukvårdspersonal, en kvinna, genomförde sedan “två-finger” testet. Jag är förödmjukad och rädd för att behöva göra oskuldstestet. Det fanns kandidater som svimmade på grund av stressen. Högkommissarie Rumiati, polispsykolog som nu undervisar vid Polishögskolan i Jakarta, berättade för Human Rights Watch: Jag började vid polisen 1984 via studentvärnplikten. Jag genomgick oskuldsprovet på Arméns sjukhus i Semarang, eftersom polisen och militären mellan 1965 och 2002 ingick i ett enda befäl. Senare som psykolog engagerade jag mig i polisrekryteringsprocessen och protesterade internt mot oskuldsprovet för kvinnliga kadetter. Jag älskar min institution. Jag vill att polisen ska upprätthålla lagarna. Många indonesiska lagar – konstitutionen, 1984 års lag om ratificering av konventionen om avskaffande av all slags diskriminering av kvinnor, och 1999 års människorättslag – förbjuder diskriminering av kvinnor. Hur kan den nationella polisen genomdriva indonesiska lagar när de själva inte lyder landets lagar? 1997 deltog jag i en parlamentarisk utfrågning om denna praxis tillsammans med kvinnorättsförsvararen Nursyahbani Katjasungkana. Tyvärr lyckades vi inte få parlamentet att rekommendera att testet skulle förbjudas. År 2010 var Brig. General Sigit Sudarmanto, dåvarande personalassistent till polischefen, organiserade ett tekniskt möte om rekrytering av nya poliskadetter. Jag tog upp frågan igen, och bad alla polisrekryteringsgrupper att stoppa oskuldstestet. Men mina kolleger, däribland de som arbetade för läkar- och hälsovårdscentret, motsatte sig mig av moraliska skäl. De sade: "Vill vi ha prostituerade som kommer till polisen?" Finns det vetenskapliga bevis för att en kvinna som inte är jungfru kommer att vara mindre produktiv än en jungfru? Finns det vetenskapliga bevis för att en kvinna som inte är oskuld automatiskt kommer att bli sämre än en jungfru? Mötet avslutades med att general Sigit bad att testet skulle stoppas. Jag vet inte varför det fortfarande händer. Veryanto Sitohang, verkställande direktör för Aliansi Sumut Bersatu, en icke-statlig organisation med säte i Medan, och en extern medlem av Norra Sumatras polisrekryteringsgrupp 2006–2008, berättade för Human Rights Watch: Jag arbetade med kvinnors och barns rättigheter när polischefen i [Norra Sumatras] Dairi regentskap nominerade mig till att vara en av fem medlemmar i ett externt team för rekrytering av poliskadetter, män och kvinnor. Bland de andra medlemmarna fanns en läkare, en psykiater och akademiker. Vi fick veta att det fanns ett oskuldstest som en del av processen [för kvinnor]. Testet genomfördes på Bhayangkara polissjukhus i Medan. Den övervakades av polisläkare i Bhayangkara. Jag rekommenderade det interna teamet, vars medlemmar är alla poliser, att inte göra [testet]. Det är uppenbarligen en kränkning av dessa unga kvinnors rättigheter. Det borde stoppas. Det interna teamet sade att de skulle överväga min input, men att [testet] var ett av de kriterier som fastställts av nationella polishögkvarteret. De gjorde det ändå. Jag skrev min invändning. Men tydligen upphörde inte det förnedrande provet. En aktivist har uppmanat polischefen Sutarman att omedelbart utfärda en förordning om att avskaffa oskuldsprov för kvinnliga polissökande. – Det finns ett behov av att formellt avskaffa oskuldstester vid screening av kvinnliga polissökande för att visa framsteg inom Rikspolisen. Denna åtgärd kommer också att skydda kvinnor från diskriminering,” Nationella kommissionen för våld mot kvinnor (Komnas Perempuan) ordförande Yuniyanti Chuzaifah sade som citeras av Antara nyhetsbyrå i Semarang på tisdag. Hon framförde kommentarerna som svar på pågående polemik om jungfrudomstester i hälsoundersökningsförfarandet vid rekrytering av kvinnliga poliser. Yuniyanti sa att oskuldstester inte längre var relevanta för kvinnliga polissökande. Hon sade vidare att den nationella polisen hade uppgett att sådana tester inte kunde avgöra om en kvinnlig kandidat skulle klara den nationella polisrekryteringsprocessen. – Därför uppmanar Komnas Perempuan rikspolischefen att utfärda en skriftlig förordning om avskaffandet av oskuldsprovet. Sedan borde debatten om frågan upphöra, sade hon. Kvinnorättsaktivisten sade vidare att många kvinnor hade förlorat oskulden i sexuella övergrepp. — Hur kan hon förlora sin rätt att bli kvinnlig polis på grund av ett oskuldstest medan en manlig sökande inte är föremål för samma prov? Det är diskriminerande, säger Yuniyanti. Tidigare hävdade polisens chef för hälso- och sjukvården, Arthur Tampi, att ingen kvinnlig polissökande underkände rekryteringsprocessen enbart därför att hon inte längre var oskuld. — En sökande kan få färre poäng om hennes mödomshinna inte är intakt; ändå kan hon klara rekryteringsprocessen, sade han i Jakarta på fredagen. Arthur sade att hälso- och medicinska tester, inklusive oskuldstestet, krävdes för att se till att sökande kunde delta i all polisutbildningsverksamhet. Nybörjartestet genomförs på grundval av Rikspolisförordningen nr 5/2009 om riktlinjer för hälsoundersökning för poliskandidater. I artikel 36 i förordningen föreskrivs att en kvinnlig poliskonstapel skall genomgå en obstetrisk och gynekologisk undersökning. (ebf)+++)++Vad är en sammanfattning?
Article: Photo JAKARTA, Indonesia – Colonel 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 disengage and administered a so-called virginity test, and put in two fingers to determine whether her hymens were intact. “I wasn’t comfortable with the test,” said Colonel Rumiati, who is now a police psychologist. “The test can be stressful on women and embarrassing. It didn’t matter that the doctor who tested her was a woman. It felt like a violation, she said, one who does not determine innocence, who has no comparable counterpart for male police recruits, and who does not achieve his apparent goal: to evaluate a recruit's morale. “You learn about the morals of a candidate from prosocial behavior testing,” she said, or evaluate a person’s actions. “It’s not about innocence.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Women applying to become police officers in Indonesia have been subjected to innocence tests since at least 1965, when the police force was placed under the command of the military. The Indonesian military has conducted maiden judgment tests on female recruits even further, said Major General Fuad Basya, spokesman for the armed forces. But the issue has sparked a heated debate here since Human Rights Watch, the international NGO, released a report and a video last month with evidence that the policy was still in force. The organization said that it had interviewed eight current and former female police officers and applicants in six cities, including two who said they had passed virginity tests this year. Married women can't be cops. “We do not know how widespread the practice is, and we do not know whether it is nationwide,” says Andreas Harsono, researcher for Human Rights Watch in Indonesia. ‘But that’s where, he said, and the test depends on morality. The argument has been: ‘We do not want prostitutes in the police force.’ Indonesia is a socially conservative country where the official state doctrine still encourages women to be housewives and caregivers for their children. The National Police Commissioner, General Sutarman, told journalists during a visit to West Java Province last month that female recruits did not undergo a virginity test. He said there was a necessary "medical examination", but did not go into details, according to Detik, a leading Indonesian news portal. However, hours later, two high-ranking national police officials in Jakarta were quoted by local news media confirming that the police force is in fact conducting maiden judgment tests for moral reasons. Advertisement Continue reading the main story While failing the virginity test does not disqualify a police applicant, she “may get fewer points if her hymen is not intact,” Brig. General Arthur Tampi, head of the National Police Medical and Health Centre, told The Jakarta Post. “Nevertheless, she is able to cope with the recruitment process. Local women and human rights groups are countering that it is not crucial to examine the hymens when it comes to determining innocence and have called for the practice to cease. A hymen can be damaged by contact sports, riding, or an accident, and some children are born without them, they say. “The test is associated with prejudices about women’s morals, has no medical benefit from determining an individual’s health and causes trauma to those undergoing it,” says the National Commission on Violence Against Women, an independent government body, in a statement. “ Similar tests are not performed for men because of differences in anatomy, but also because sociologically it is women who are considered to be the symbol of purity, not men. Men are not even asked about their innocence,” says women’s groups. Last year, the head of a local education agency in southern Sumatra province suggested doing virginity tests on high school girls to discourage promiscuity and counter teen prostitution. Thousands of Indonesians made their way to social media to criticize the idea, which was quickly dismissed by national government officials in the capital Jakarta. It is unclear how widespread the practice is. Colonel Dede Rahayu, who runs the Police Women's School in Jakarta, who conducts a seven-month training program for new recruits outside of high school, said she did not have a virginity test when she applied to join the force in 1991. She also said that she had never heard of any of her students or employees having to undergo one. The police women “who said they had that test did not understand what a virgin test is,” she said, noting that all applicants undergo a rectal exam and that they may have confused the two. “Or perhaps they want people to think that they were still virgins when they joined together,” she said, half in jest. “A single woman who is not a virgin is taboo in Indonesia.” • Ratings are available once the video has been rented. This feature is not available at the moment. Try again later. Expand A police cadet leads traffic in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is one of 7,000 female police cadets recruited in April 2014. © 2014 Andreas Harsono/Human Rights Watch (Jakarta) – The Indonesian government is subjected to female applicants to Indonesia's national police for discriminatory and degrading “virgin tests”, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch interviewed female police and police applicants in six Indonesian cities who had passed the test, two of them in 2014. Applicants who “failed” were not necessarily excluded from the force, but all women described the test as painful and traumatic. Police women have raised the issue with senior police officials, who have at times claimed that the practice has been discontinued. However, the test is listed as a requirement for female applicants on the official police recruitment website, and Human Rights Watch interviews suggest that it is still widely applied. “Indonesian national police use of ‘virgin testing’ is a discriminatory practice that harms and humiliates women,” said Nisha Varia, associating women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Police authorities in Jakarta must immediately and unequivocally abolish the test, and then ensure that all police recruitment stations nationwide stop administering it.” The tests are contrary to national police principles that recruitment must be both “non-discriminatory” and “human”, and violate international human rights to equality, non-discrimination and integrity. Forced attempts may also constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment prohibited by international law. Between May and October 2014, Human Rights Watch interviewed eight current and former police women and applicants, as well as police doctors, a police recruitment evaluator, a member of the National Police Commission and women's rights activists. Interviews were conducted in the towns of Bandung, Jakarta, Padang, Pekanbaru, Makassar and Medan. All the women who had passed the test said it was applied to all the other women in their police class as well. The ‘virginity tests’ are carried out in accordance with Police Chief Regulation No. 5/2009 on Health Inspection (Pemeriksaan Kesehatan) Guidelines for Police Candidates. According to Article 36 of the Regulation, applicants for female police academies are to undergo an ‘obstetrics and gynecology degree’. Although the regulation does not specify that a “virgin test” should be administered as part of the exam, two senior police women told Human Rights Watch that it has long been practice. The test is given early in the recruitment process as part of the applicants' physical exam. The Police Medical and Health Centre (Pusat Kedokteran dan Kesehatan) conducts the tests primarily in police-run hospitals. Human Rights Watch found that the investigation has included the discredited and degrading “two finger test” to determine whether female applicants’ hymens are intact. A memo produced in 2012 by an international organization that has assisted with national police reform training cites a July 2008 letter from a senior national police official to the elite police academy in Semarang where he describes the need to inspect female candidates' hymens to ensure their innocence. In October, National Police Commissioner Sri Rumiati told Human Rights Watch that in 2010 was the then chief of police staff, Brig. General Sigit Sudarmanto, agreed to abolish the virginity test. A police general at the Medical Center claimed that the test was no longer applied. However, there is little evidence that the National Police have taken steps to stop the tests. Indonesia’s National Police Office’s Work Website says on November 5, 2014 that “In addition to the medical and physical tests, women who want to become police women must also undergo virginity tests. So all women who want to be police women should keep their virginity.” Married women are not eligible for the job. The administration of such tests is a long-standing practice—a retired police officer said her class of female recruits in 1965 had to undergo the test—and have lasting effects. As one woman told Human Rights Watch when she remembered her 2008 test: “It was really upsetting to go into the test room for virginity testing. I was afraid I wouldn't be a virgin anymore. That really hurt. My friend even fainted because... it really hurt, really hurt.” The National Police are planning a 50% increase in the number of police women, to 21 000 in December. With a force of around 400,000 police officers, further recruitment will increase the proportion of women in the force from 3% to 5%. In April, the National Police launched an unprecedented mass recruitment campaign in which 7,000 female cadets completed a special seven-month training program in eight police training facilities in the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. Yefri Heriyani, head of the Women’s Rights Group Nurani Perempuan in Padang, West Sumatra, who has encountered many female police applicants for the past 12 years, said that the virginity tests had traumatized many of these women: “These police women experience trauma and stress during the virginity tests, but [the national police] make no clear attempt to help them recover. No effort is being made to help them out of their stress and trauma. Consequently, it will affect their lives in the long term. Many of them blame themselves for taking the test.” Human Rights Watch has documented the use of offensive “indebt tests” by police in several other countries, including Egypt, India and Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch has previously criticized demands for ‘virgin tests' for schoolgirls in Indonesia, both as human rights violations and for being subjective and unscientific. “So-called virgin tests are discriminatory and a form of gender-based violence – not a measure of women’s suitability for a career in the police,” said Varia. “This pernicious practice not only keeps competent women out of the police, but deprives all Indonesians of a police force with the most genuinely qualified officers.” A long time Practice A retired policewoman, Dr. Irawati Harsono, now a lecturer at the Graduate School of Police Sciences in Jakarta, told Human Rights Watch that she had expressed her objections to “indebt tests” with the National Police’s then head of staff, Mochammade Sanoesi, in 1980. She said that Sanoesi, who became National Police Commissioner in 1986 before retiring in 1991, did not respond to her call to abolish the practice. A memo produced in 2012 by an international organization that has assisted with national police reform training cites a July 2008 letter from a senior national police official to the elite police academy in Semarang where he describes the need to inspect female candidates' hymens to ensure their innocence. The requirement has given rise to many books and videos of so-called specialists who give female police applicants advice on taking the “test.” Anhar Wahyu, an Indonesian blogger, in his book Buku Persiapan Masuk TNI dan POLRI (“Preparation to enter the Armed Forces and National Police”), gives tips to female applicants on how to ensure that they pass the virginity test and how to respond if they “fail” the test. The ‘virginity tests’ of the International Law have been recognised internationally as a violation of human rights, in particular the prohibition of ‘gross, inhuman or degrading treatment’ under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 16 of the Convention against Torture, which Indonesia has ratified. The UN Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that monitors compliance with the League, says in a general comment that Article 7 aims to "protect both the dignity and physical and mental integrity of the individual". Article 7 is not only about acts that cause physical pain, but also about actions that cause psychological suffering to the victim. Obsessiveness endangers women's dignity and violates their physical and mental integrity. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Other Human Rights Treaties prohibits discrimination against women. As men are not subjected to a virginity test, the practice constitutes discrimination against women as it has the effect or purpose of denying women due to equality with men the right to work as police officers. Indonesian police applicants speak out about “Virginity Testing” A 24-year-old woman who took the test in Makassar in 2008 told Human Rights Watch: For the test, 20 applicants were asked to enter a survey room in Makassar Bhayangkara police hospital. We were ordered to undress in three minutes. The medical staff then checked our eyes, nose, teeth, spine, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids. Then we were told to enter a separate room without a door. The medical staff carried out the ‘two finger test’ on two candidates [at a time] in the room. It was scary to just go into the room, because we had to undress while there were 20 people in the room. We didn't know each other. It was really upsetting to go into the virginity test room. I was afraid I wouldn't be a virgin anymore. They put in two fingers. That really hurt. My friend passed out because it hurt. A 19-year-old woman who took the test in Pekanbaru in 2014 told Human Rights Watch: I did the health test in a hall at the State Police School (Sekolah Polisi Negara) building. They put up a curtain so outsiders couldn't stop by. My group of about 20 girls were asked to enter the hall and asked to take off our clothes, including our bras and underpants. It was humiliating. Only those who had menstruation can wear underwear. Our group was the last one that day. The medical staff was probably already exhausted. ... We are asked to sit on a table for women who give birth. A female doctor did the virginity test... the two-finger test. I wasn't nervous. I'm sure I'm still a virgin. When the virgin test was over, we were asked to put on our clothes. I do not want to remember these bad experiences. It was humiliating. Why should we undress in front of strangers? Indeed, they were women, but they were completely alien. It was discriminatory. That's not necessary. I think it should be stopped. An 18-year-old woman who took the test in Bandung in 2013 told Human Rights Watch: I was told that there was a health examination as a prerequisite for entering the police force. I learned about the virginity test only when I was going to take the physical examination and [was told] that there is an “internal examination”. At first I didn’t know it was the virginity test. The Selection Committee told the applicants just before the ‘internal trial’ that we could resign from the selection process if we did not want to go through the virginity test. But most of us had gone through so much preparation for the demands [to apply to become a policewoman]. I felt that I had no power to object, for if I refused to undergo the virginity test, I would not be able to enter the police force. Twenty female applicants were invited to enter a hall for the physical examination. They were then told to enter a room and were urged to lie down. The healthcare professional, a woman, then conducted the “two-finger” test. I'm humiliated and scared of having to do the virginity test. There were candidates who fainted due to the stress. High Commissioner Rumiati, police psychologist who is now teaching at the Jakarta Police College, told Human Rights Watch: I joined the police in 1984 via student military service. I passed the virginity test at the Army Hospital in Semarang, since between 1965 and 2002 the police and the military were part of a single command. Later as a psychologist, I became involved in the police recruitment process and protested internally against the virginity test for female cadets. I love my institution. I want the police to enforce the laws. Many Indonesian laws – the Constitution, the 1984 Act ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the 1999 Human Rights Act – prohibit discrimination against women. How can the national police enforce Indonesian laws when they themselves do not obey the laws of the country? In 1997, I took part in a parliamentary hearing on this practice together with women's rights defender Nursyahbani Katjasungkana. Unfortunately, we were unable to get Parliament to recommend banning the test. In 2010, Brig was. General Sigit Sudarmanto, then staff assistant to the Chief of Police, organized a technical meeting on recruiting new police cadets. I raised the issue again, and asked all police recruitment teams to stop the virginity test. However, my colleagues, including those working for the Medical and Health Centre, opposed me for moral reasons. They said, "Do we want prostitutes coming to the police?" Is there scientific evidence that a woman who is not a virgin will be less productive than a virgin? Is there scientific evidence that a woman who is not a virgin will automatically become worse than a virgin? The meeting concluded with General Sigit asking for the test to be stopped. I don't know why it's still happening. Veryanto Sitohang, executive director of Aliansi Sumut Bersatu, an NGO based in Medan, and an external member of the North Sumatra Police Recruitment Group from 2006 to 2008, told Human Rights Watch: I worked on women's and children's rights when the police chief of [North Sumatra's] Dairi regency nominated me to be one of five members of an external team for recruiting police cadets, men and women. Among the other members was a doctor, a psychiatrist, and academic. We were told that there was a virginity test as part of the process [for women]. The test was conducted at Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Medan. It was supervised by police doctors in Bhayangkara. I recommended the internal team, whose members are all police officers, not to do [the test]. It is obviously a violation of the rights of these young women. That should be stopped. The internal team said they would consider my input, but that [the test] was one of the criteria set by national police headquarters. They did it anyway. I wrote my objection. Apparently, however, the degrading test did not stop. An activist has called on Chief Sutarman to immediately issue a decree abolishing virginity tests for female police applicants. “There is a need to formally abolish virginity tests when screening female police applicants to show progress within the National Police. This measure will also protect women from discrimination,” National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) chairman Yuniyanti Chuzaifah said as quoted by Antara news agency in Semarang on Tuesday. She made the comments in response to ongoing polemics about maiden judgment tests in the health examination procedure when recruiting female police officers. Yuniyanti said virginity tests were no longer relevant to female police applicants. She further said that the national police had stated that such tests could not determine whether a female candidate would pass the national police recruitment process. – Therefore, Komnas Perempuan calls on the National Police Commissioner to issue a written decree on the abolition of the virginity test. He said that the EU should not be allowed to take part in the debate on the subject. The women's rights activist further said that many women had lost their virginity in sexual abuse. — How can she lose her right to become a female police officer because of a virginity test while a male search is not subject to the same test? It's discriminatory," says Yuniyanti. In the past, the police chief of health care, Arthur Tampi, claimed that no female police applicant failed the recruitment process simply because she was no longer a virgin. “An applicant may get fewer points if her hymen is not intact; yet she can pass the recruitment process,” he said in Jakarta on Friday. Arthur said health and medical tests, including the virginity test, were required to ensure applicants could participate in all police training activities. The beginner test is carried out on the basis of the National Police Ordinance No 5/2009 on guidelines for health examination for police candidates. Article 36 of the Regulation provides that a female police officer is to undergo an obstetric and gynecological examination. (ebf)++++What is a summary?
– Kvinnor som hoppas på att bli poliser i Indonesien behöver vara starka, friska – och bör ha en intakt mödomshinna, säger tjänstemän, för att avgöra om de är moraliska eller inte. Uppenbarelsen har gett upphov till en ny omgång debatter om kvinnors rättigheter i denna mycket konservativa nation, rapporterar New York Times. "Liknande tester utförs inte för män på grund av skillnader i anatomi, utan också för att sociologiskt sett är det kvinnor som anses vara renhetens symbol, inte män", säger ett oberoende statligt organ om våld mot kvinnor. Kritiker menar också att testerna (som innebär att en läkare sätter in fingrar inuti en kvinna) är diskriminerande, traumatiska och oavslutade med tanke på att mödomshinnor kan skadas på andra sätt, som ridning eller kontaktsport. En Human Rights Watch-rapport och video gav upphov till debatten förra månaden om sådana tester, som har pågått i 50 år eller mer under radarn. – Vi vet inte hur utbredd den är och vi vet inte om den är rikstäckande, säger en HRW-forskare. "Men den finns där. ... Argumentet har varit: 'Vi vill inte ha prostituerade i poliskåren.'" En topppolistjänsteman berättar för Jakarta Post att ett misslyckat oskuldstest bara skadar en kandidats chanser snarare än diskvalificerar henne, men en kvinnas rättighetsaktivist säger att det är desto större anledning att avskaffa bruket. Förra året föreslog en utbildningstjänsteman i Indonesien att man skulle ge flickor på gymnasiet oskuldsprov för att motverka prostitution och promiskuitet, men idén skrotades efter omfattande upprördhet på sociala medier.
“Women hoping to become police officers in Indonesia need to be strong, healthy – and should have an intact hymen,” officials say, to determine whether they are moral or not. The revelation has given rise to a new round of debates on women's rights in this very conservative nation, reports the New York Times. "Similar tests are not carried out for men because of differences in anatomy, but also because sociologically it is women who are considered to be the symbol of purity, not men," says an independent state body on violence against women. Critics also argue that the tests (meaning a doctor inserting fingers inside a woman) are discriminatory, traumatic, and unfinished given that hymens may be damaged in other ways, such as riding or contact sport. A Human Rights Watch report and video gave rise to the debate last month on such tests, which have been going on for 50 years or more under radar. “We don’t know how widespread it is and we don’t know if it’s nationwide,” says a HRW researcher. "But it's there. ... The argument has been, 'We don't want prostitutes in the police force.'" A top police official tells Jakarta Post that a failed virginity test only harms a candidate's chances rather than disqualifies her, but a woman's rights activist says that it is all the more reason to abolish the practice. Last year, an educational official in Indonesia suggested giving girls in high school a virgin test to counter prostitution and promiscuity, but the idea was scrapped after widespread outrage on social media.