Indonesia army signals end to ‘virginity test’ for female recruits

Human rights groups welcome chief of staff’s apparent decision to end the decades-long, ‘abusive’ practice

Gemma Holliani Cahya in Jakarta
Fri 6 Aug 2021 00.53 BST

Human rights organisations have welcomed the Indonesian army’s apparent decision to end the “abusive” and long-criticised “virginity testing” of female recruitments.

The procedure is known in Indonesia as “the two-finger test”, because during the examination the doctors would insert two fingers inside the woman’s vagina to check whether the hymen is still intact or not. Those declared not to be a virgin would be rejected for recruitment.

In a teleconference with military commanders across Indonesia, army chief of staff, Gen Andika Perkasa signalled the end of the decades-long practice and said that women would be recruited in the same way as men.

Recruits would be chosen on their ability to follow the army’s education process, Gen Perkasa says in an excerpt from the teleconference uploaded to the Indonesian army official YouTube account on 18 July.

“There will be no more (medical) examination outside that purpose,” Perkasa said. “There are things that are not relevant … And (we) can’t do that kind of examination any more. We must do the same examination on the women recruits like we do on the men recruits.”

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