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Ending virginity testing in TNI is not enough
Although the Indonesian Army has issued a technical instruction that removes the test, there are currently no public policies in the form of legislation that guarantees the abolition of virginity testing in the Indonesian Military (TNI).
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At ease: Soldiers of the Indonesian Army take part in a roll call at the Women Army Corps Education Center in Bandung. The Army has stopped the so-called virginity testing for women recruits and fiancées of soldiers. (Courtesy of/Indonesian Army)
E
ven though the decades-long virginity testing for prospective female recruits and soldiers’ fiancées is no longer in practice in the Indonesian Military (TNI), a thorough review and amendment of the law concerning administrative discretion is urgently needed to make sure such gender-based discriminatory practices have no place in the country.
Until mid-2021, the TNI required female applicants and soldiers’ fiancées to undergo a two-fingered virginity test performed on their clitoris to determine whether they were sexually active.
The TNI and the government justified the practice on the basis of health and morality concerns. Just as a reminder, when he was the TNI commander, Moeldoko, now the presidential chief of staff, said that even though there was no correlation between a woman’s virginity and her ability to serve in the military, virginity was an indicator of one’s morality.
In July last year, however, the then-head of the TNI legal development agency, Rear Adm. Anwar Saadi, announced that virginity testing was no longer an absolute requirement in the TNI employment policy and that such a policy must be understood from the perspective of gynecology.
Although the Indonesian Army has issued a technical instruction that removes the test, there are currently no public policies in the form of legislation that guarantees abolition of virginity testing in the TNI. Worse, there is no plan to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that can reveal the decades-long violations of women's rights and reconcile those who did not pass the controversial test with the perpetrators of the rights violations.
The fact that the test lasted for decades reflects the tone-deaf employment policy and deep-rooted value unconsciousness of the principles of human rights and dignity, social justice and nondiscrimination within the TNI. Worse, no military officers have ever been held administratively and legally accountable.
Administrative accountability, in addition to legal accountability, is deemed as the most obvious option as one of the principles of the TNI code of ethics is respect for the dignity of women. Article 2(d) of TNI Law No. 34/2004 defines professional soldiers as those who respect political policies that adhere to the principles of democracy, civil supremacy, human rights, provisions of national and international laws that Indonesia has ratified.
