Indonesia: Mandatory pregnancy and virginity tests for school girls should be stopped

Amnesty International today called on the Indonesian government to block discriminatory moves to institute pregnancy and virginity tests for high school girls.

Media reports earlier this week say that the head of a vocational high school in Magetan, East Java, has forced students to undergo pregnancy tests as part of the assessment of their eligibility to study.   

The move follows attempts in September by a legislator in Central Sumatra to introduce compulsory virginity tests for female students.

Isabelle Arradon, Amnesty International’s Indonesia researcher, said:  

“These tests are not only intrusive and degrading but plainly discriminatory, as nowhere are men or boys subjected to any equivalent form of ‘moral’ testing.”

Amnesty International’s November report “Left Without a Choice: Barriers to Reproductive Health in Indonesia”, described how a web of discriminatory laws and practices that deny Indonesian Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights full access to sexual health care and information.

Laws that restrict sexual and privacy rights have increased in recent years in Indonesia, largely due to political decentralisation.  These include laws that criminalise consensual sex between adults, or punish unmarried adult men and Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights who are alone together.

The overall context of restrictions of sexual and reproductive rights in Indonesia also put Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights and girls at risk of unwanted pregnancy, which can leave them vulnerable to a range of health problems and human rights violations, including being forced to marry young, drop out of school, or seek an illegal and unsafe abortion.