APSN | Lawmaker urges TNI to 'rethink' TNI virginity tests

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Lawmaker urges TNI to 'rethink' TNI virginity tests

Jakarta Globe - May 17, 2015

'It's a good thing': Military chief on virginity testing of female recruits – Jakarta Globe. May 16, 2015
Indonesian military insists on virginity tests to determine 'naughty' female recruits – The Guardian. May 14, 2015
Use of virginity tests must end, activists tell Joko – Jakarta Globe. February 10, 2015
Indonesia's virginity tests untenable, says HRW – Jakarta Post. February 10, 2015
Police chief urged to abolish virginity test – Jakarta Post. November 25, 2014

Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – A lawmaker from the House of Representatives' Commission I, which oversees defense, intelligence and security affairs, has urged the Indonesian military to rethink its invasive virginity tests for female recruits.

Tubagus Hasanuddin, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said on Sunday there was no connection between virginity and morals. "If a non-virgin is robbed of her right to join the military, we need to rethink it," he said, adding he did not condone premarital sex.

Tubagus, a former high-ranked military official, said by law there were eight criteria that recruits had to meet to be accepted into the Indonesian Armed Forces, or TNI, but being a virgin was not one of them.

The so-called two-finger test, which the TNI requires female recruits to take to gauge their morality, has sparked international condemnation, but has been defended by top military brass.

The commander of Indonesia's armed forces, Gen. Moeldoko, asked reporters on Saturday: "So what's the problem? It's a good thing, so why criticize it?"

TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya, meanwhile, said it was an appropriate part of a medical checkup, used to determine the mental state of female recruits.

Human Rights Watch has demanded President Joko Widodo ask military hospitals immediately to stop administering the tests, which violate international human rights treaties that Indonesia has ratified.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/lawmaker-urges-tni-rethink-tni-virginity-tests/.