Local MP
had proposed all girls had to be virgins in order to graduate from school
The Guardian - AFP, 12 February 2015
High-school girls in an Indonesian district will not be subjected to virginity tests in order to graduate, an official has insisted, after a lawmaker sparked an outcry by proposing the move.
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| A Muslim high-school girl sits in a classroom. A local Indonesian MP had proposed that all girls have a virginity test in order to graduate from school. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters |
High-school girls in an Indonesian district will not be subjected to virginity tests in order to graduate, an official has insisted, after a lawmaker sparked an outcry by proposing the move.
The MP in
the Jember local parliament on the main island of Java, last week put forward a
regulation on “good conduct” that included forcing female students to pass a
virginity test before they can complete high school.
He argued
that the move was aimed at tackling pre-marital sex in conservative Indonesia,
which has the world’s biggest Muslim population.
But rights
groups and Islamic authorities alike reacted furiously, prompting officials in
Jember to swiftly distance themselves from the plan.
Kusen
Andalas, deputy head of the district, insisted Wednesday that the proposal
would not go ahead: “I don’t think it is ethical to carry out such tests, it is
against people’s rights.”
The
parliament’s deputy speaker, Ayub Junaidi, had already reportedly apologised
for the comments and said no such bylaw would be enacted.
Human
Rights Watch deputy director for Asia, Phelim Kine, described the proposal as
“appalling”, adding: “The Indonesian government’s tolerance for this violence
against women and girls needs to end.”
The issue
of virginity tests has caused controversy in Indonesia before.
In 2013,
the education chief of a city on western Sumatra island sparked outrage by
suggesting that teenage schoolgirls should undergo virginity tests to enter
senior high school.
The police
faced criticism last year after a study said female applicants to the force
were subjected to such examinations.
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