TNI Officially Abolishes Virginity Tests for Prospective Soldiers

JAKARTADAILY.ID - TNI has officially abolished virginity testing for prospective female soldiers.

This was conveyed by the Head of the TNI Health Center, Major General Budiman, as he emphasized that virginity tests had now been effectively abolished in all of its three divisions, namely the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.

"[The abolition of virginity tests] has been effective [in effect]. [The policy] has come into effect in all divisions, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force," said Budiman.

Budiman, who was met after the 2022 Health Technical Coordination Meeting at TNI Headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, said that according to the direction of the TNI commander General Andika Perkasa, the tests were considered not to affect female soldiers while undergoing education, training, as well as assignments as a female armed force.

Thus, the TNI commander then decided to abolish the virginity tests from the examination of prospective female TNI soldiers.

"The TNI Commander has abolished this requirement in the technical manual for examining the bodies of prospective TNI soldiers," said Budiman.

He explained that the policy's abolition had nothing to do with the surge in applicants for female soldiers.

However, the abolition of the virginity test was carried out to implement principles of Human Rights for women who happen to be no longer virgins, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Therefore, if this is experienced by prospective female soldiers, they still have the opportunity to become members of the TNI, as long as they have good physicality and intellectual abilities.

"It all relates to the credibility of the person concerned, and we have a series of tests to see this. But rest assured that this issue is no longer a standard thing in the technical guidelines," Budiman said, as quoted by Antara.

Previously, when General Andika was the Army Chief of Staff in 2021, he made a statement regarding the policy of eliminating virginity tests in the recruitment of prospective TNI soldiers.

At that time, Andika said the tests were deemed to have nothing to do with the purpose of military education. Thus, he urged that conditions that do not have anything to do with the matter, such as virginity tests, no longer be enforced.

The article was translated from Pikiran-Rakyat.com's article titled "Tes Keperawanan Calon Prajurit TNI Sudah Dihapus, Berlaku Untuk TNI AD, AL, dan AU".
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