TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Armed Forces (TNI) information department chief Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said the TNI would continue conducting virginity testing for female candidates of soldiers. Fuad said the tests were necessary for the TNI to figure out the mental state of the candidates.

“We cannot yet meet the calls from the human rights foundation because one of the requirements for female soldiers to join the force is to pass the virginity tests,” he said on Thursday, May 12, 2015.

Earlier, Human Rights Watch, or HRW, demanded the TNI to scrap virginity examination for female candidates of soldiers and soldiers’ would-be wives. The HRW said they had interviewed 11 females who were subjected to the tests and all of them said the testing had left them with traumas, pains and shame.

The HRW also underscored the tests, also known as the two-finger examination, had nothing to do with national security affairs and were discriminative.

Fuad said during TNI recruitments a doctor would examine whether female candidates were still virgin and, if proved otherwise, would further look into the cause of their non-virginity.

“Perhaps it was due to accidents, illnesses, or attitudes or habits,” he said, adding that if a candidate lost her virginity from sexual intercourse out of wedlock then the candidate’s mental state would be said unfit to become a soldiers.

MOYANG KASIH DEWIMERDEKA