The Indonesian military continues to conduct virginity tests on women trying to join the police or military even though the World Health Organization says the test has no scientific validity. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sujma Wijaya)
The top commander of Indonesia’s military defended the two-finger virginity tests for female recruits saying the test was key to determining a woman’s morality.
The Jakarta Globe reported:
The commander of Indonesia’s armed forces believes that invasive virginity tests for female recruits are a good thing and the only way to gauge the women’s morality.
Asked for his response to growing international condemnation of the practice, Gen. Moeldoko insisted to reporters at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday that the so-called two-finger test was one of the requirements for women joining the Indonesian Military, or TNI.
“So what’s the problem? It’s a good thing, so why criticize it?” he said.
He conceded, though, that there was no direct link between a woman being a virgin and her abilities as a member of the armed forces, but insisted that virginity was a gauge of a woman’s morality – one of the three key traits he said a woman must have to serve in the TNI, along with high academic aptitude and physical strength.
The virginity test “is a measure of morality. There’s no other way” to determine a person’s morality, Moeldoko claimed.
His statements came a day after the group Human Rights Watch urged Indonesia to abolish the practice, pointing out that international treaties had described it as degrading and cruel.
