The Indonesian army will no longer conduct virginity tests on women applying to join the forces, the chief of staff announced on Wednesday. The practice was long condemned by rights groups who called it degrading and traumatic.
"Whether the hymen was ruptured or partially ruptured was part of the examination ... now there's no more of that," Andika Perkasa, the Indonesian army chief of staff, told reporters, referring to the invasive two-finger examination that was conducted to determine whether female applicants' hymens were intact.
In the past, the military used the tests to determine recruits' morality.
No scientific validity
The Human Rights Watch conducted investigations into the practice, terming it systematic, abusive and cruel, while the World Health Organization said these tests had "no scientific validity" as the appearance of a hymen could not be a reliable indicator of intercourse.
Last month, army chief Andika said the selection process for male and female recruits must be equal. Virginity testing was "irrelevant to the purpose of recruitment and must not be administered," he added.
Activists welcome move
Rights activists welcomed the move, reiterating that such tests were a form of violence against women. Indonesia researcher at HRW Andreas Harsono said it was "the right thing to do", and that the practice was "degrading, discriminatory, and traumatic."
"There was never any need for the tests," said Andy Yentriyani, who heads the National Commission on Violence Against Women.
It remains unclear if Indonesia's navy and air force have also removed the requirement. The national police force scrapped the policy in 2015.