Virginity test
[5] Many pre-modern societies placed great value on assessing the virginity of their girls, as is attested in sources ranging from mythology to popular literature, folklore, and official records.
[6] Prior to the advance of anatomical knowledge in the 15th century, the nature of the hymen was not fully understood, and consequently a great variety of more or less fantastical or scientific tests were advocated for.
[7] In ancient Greece, a story related in the 5th century BC tells how the god Pan could establish the purity of any girl, as his mystical flute responded spontaneously to the presence of a virgin.
A doctor performs the test by inserting a finger into the female's vagina to check the level of vaginal laxity, which is used to determine if she is "habituated to sexual intercourse".
[21] Virginity testing perpetuates these harmful stereotyped beliefs through the discriminatory framework that women are primarily responsible for all sexual activity and misconduct.
[21] In Iran, sixteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants aged 32 to 60 years to elucidate the perceptions and experiences of Iranian examiners of virginity testing.
The result of this study indicated that virginity testing is more than a medical examination, considering the cultural factors involved and its overt and covert consequences.
An announcement was made in August 2013 in Prabumulih district, South Sumatra, Indonesia, by local education chief Muhammad Rasyid, that teenage girls attending high school there would be given mandatory annual virginity tests, beginning in 2014.
[36] In 2014 the Human Rights Watch reported that a physical virginity test is routinely performed on female candidates to the Indonesian National Police as part of the job application process.
[38][39][40] In Iran, Atena Farghadani was charged with "illicit sexual relations falling short of adultery" for shaking hands with her lawyer in June 2015.
She complained that Iranian prison officials and guards have made lewd gestures, sexual slurs and other insults to her, and went on a three-day "dry" hunger strike in September 2015 in protest of this ill-treatment.
[41] In India's Kanjarbhat community, after a marriage ceremony takes place, a virginity test is carried out on the newly-married wife using a white bed sheet.
[42][43] In 2019, the Maharashtra state government announced that it intended to make virginity tests for brides a punishable offence, describing the practice as form of sexual assault.
Another variation, the septate hymen (a condition in which a band of tissue divides the vaginal canal in two) may also require medical intervention if it does not resolve naturally through sexual intercourse or other means.
A female can undergo a surgical procedure, called hymenorrhaphy or hymenoplasty, to repair or replace a torn hymen, to "pass" a virginity test.
[48] In May 2013, the Supreme Court of India held that the two-finger test on a rape victim violates her right to privacy, and asked the Delhi government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault.
In October 2022 the Supreme Court of India strongly criticized the utilization of the "two-finger test" in rape and sexual assault cases and urged the central government to take immediate steps to cease the practice.
In 2004, a Zimbabwean village chief, Naboth Makoni, stated that he would adopt a plan to enforce virginity tests as a way of protecting his people against HIV.
[57] In South Africa, where virginity testing is banned for girls under the age of 16, the Zulu tribe believes that the practice prevents the spread of HIV and teenage pregnancy.
