Asia | Virginity testing in Indonesia

Taking the cop out of copulation

The unintended consequences of an outrageous tradition

It’s no way to recruit an army
|JAKARTA

WHEN Sri Rumiati joined the police, she had to take a virginity test. It was uncomfortable and humiliating, she recalls. Not to mention unscientific and irrelevant to police work.

Ms Rumiati, who is now a commissioner, has campaigned to have such tests for female recruits abolished. Officially they ended last year, after Human Rights Watch, a pressure group, condemned the practice. Badrodin Haiti, Indonesia’s national police chief, insists that there are now no virginity tests, but what there is, he says, “is a test for reproductive health, which is part of the overall health examination.” The police website warns female cadets to expect a “pregnancy test”.

However, Dr Musyafak, the chief medical officer of Jakarta’s metropolitan police, says that the new tests still involve a doctor examining the cadet to see if her hymen is intact. Whenever possible, female doctors conduct the tests, but in rural provinces, where female doctors are rare, cadets may have to endure being examined by a man.

“Failing” the test no longer affects the overall fitness score that helps determine whether a cadet can become a fully fledged police officer, says Dr Musyafak. However, in as vast an archipelagic nation as Indonesia, is it hard to tell how uniformly this reform is enforced. Meanwhile, the Indonesian army continues to subject female recruits to virginity tests.

Two assumptions lie behind such tests, both wrong. First, that you can tell if a woman is a virgin by probing her hymen. Such tests reveal nothing about a woman’s sexual history. The second assumption is that virgins make better police officers or soldiers, because they are more “moral”. As a senior policeman told reporters in 2014: “If [a candidate] turns out to be a prostitute, then how could we accept her for the job?”

Indonesia in graphics: Tiger, tiger, almost bright

Such attitudes are not the only reason why only 3% of Indonesian police officers are female—there are also not nearly enough police-academy places for women—but they do not help. “If I applied for a job and they said ‘Take a virginity test’, I’d look for a different job,” says Zakiatun Nisa, a feminist activist in Jakarta. “If an employer wants you to take a test like that, it’s a sign that the employer is screwed up.”

“We need more policewomen,” says Ms Rumiati. “Many precincts have none.” She says this makes it difficult for women to report domestic abuse or rape. Indriyati Suparno, of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, agrees. Women in Indonesia are often reluctant to talk about intimate problems, she says. “It’s hard to talk about domestic violence even with your best friend. So how can you talk about it with the police?”

Last year a woman who had reported to the police that her husband was abusing her was jailed for five months for defaming him. (Her husband cited her Facebook posts complaining about his alleged behaviour.) Judging by official statistics, Indonesia is a very safe place to be a woman. For instance, in 2013 fewer rapes were reported among its 250m citizens than among Sweden’s 10m. Perhaps Indonesian men are signally less violent than Swedes. Or maybe a lot of Indonesian women are too intimidated to report what is happening to them.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Taking the cop out of copulation"

When the drugs don’t work: The rise of antibiotic resistance

From the May 21st 2016 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

What next for Pakistan?

The new government faces polarised politics, a faltering economy and terrorist threats

The Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan is at war with the world

The group which claimed responsibility for the Crocus City Hall attack is increasingly worrying


Arvind Kejriwal’s imprisonment is a stain on India’s democracy

He is the first sitting chief minister in the country’s history to be arrested