UK pressured to intervene in Indonesia to stop “gross violation” of military virginity tests

The most populated Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, is being pressured by human rights groups to stop the degrading practice of “virginity tests” on women applying to the military. Dr Meghan Campbell, deputy director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub recommended that “as the UK seeks to position itself as a global leader it should protect the human rights of women all over the world”. So, the UK is being urged “to make aid and increased trade with Indonesia conditional on an end to degrading ‘virginity tests’.”

Women are regarded as inferiors according to Islamic doctrine where wife beating, marital rape, rape of infidels are permitted among a range of other practices which are abusive and degrading to women; so to demand sanctions against Indonesia for the “gross violation” of  military ‘virginity tests’ would be futile without addressing the rest of such human rights violations across Islamic states.

The world at large refuses to recognize the barbarity perpetrated by Islamic doctrine because the sharia inspired “Islamophobia” battering rams are promptly wielded by Islamic supremacists to beat down critics.

A few religious examples:

• If a husband calls his wife to his bed and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning.” (Book 59, Hadith 58)
• We went out with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi’l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing ‘azl (Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid-conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah’s Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter(Book 8, Hadith 3371)
• Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves. (Tabari 9:1754) — From Muhammad’s ‘Farewell Sermon’.
• Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will. (Quran 2:223)
• Maybe, his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in your place wives better than you, submissive, faithful, obedient, penitent, adorers, fasters, widows and virgins. (Quran 66:5)
• And tell the believing women to reduce of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.(Quran 24:31)
  If a woman does not cover, she is fair game to be assaulted….
• O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.(Quran 33:59)

“A gross violation’: UK must demand an end to Indonesian military’s invasive virginity testing, say experts” Nicola Smith&Sarah Newey, Telegraph, May 29, 2019:

he UK government has been urged by human rights campaigners to make aid and increased trade with Indonesia conditional on an end to degrading “virginity tests”.

For decades, women applying to Indonesia’s military have been subjected to the invasive practice in the belief that it will establish whether they are sexually active – and therefore if they are “moral” and “worthy of office”.

The “two finger test”, in which medics check whether a woman’s hymen is still intact, has no basis in science and is used as a humiliating threat to keep women from progressing in the country’s security apparatus.

The issue is being raised as the UK Department for International Development (Dfid) and the Department of Trade move to expand relations with the fast growing south east Asian state.

Dr Meghan Campbell, deputy director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub and law lecturer at Birmingham University, told The Telegraph that the UK should “strenuously advocate” for an end to the practice.

“Virginity testing is a gross violation of a woman’s right to equality,” she said. “It reinforces stereotypes that a woman’s moral worth is exclusively connected to sexual activity… and excludes them from positions of power.

“As the UK seeks to position itself as a global leader it should protect the human rights of women all over the world,” Dr Campbell added.

“In interactions with the Indonesian government, be it trade, the Department for International Development or any other context, the UK should strenuously advocate for the removal of the test. It can put conditionalities on aid and trade that should require the removal of virginity testing,” she said.

Just last week, Indonesia deployed thousands of police and military officers to the streets of the capital, Jakarta, to quell violent protests over disputed presidential election results. The absence of female officers was stark.

Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), who has researched the issue for decades, claimed the practice was impacting the military’s performance at home and abroad.

Last June, Indonesia was selected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and has since faced calls to improve its poor record on female participation in peacekeeping missions.

“There are many studies that women are doing a better job in peacekeeping than men,” said Mr Harsono. “Meanwhile back home [Indonesia] is deterring women to join the armed forces.”

But last week the Indonesian defence ministry continued to defend the continued use of “virginity tests” when recruiting female officers as a question of “character”.

Iroth Sonny Edhie, a chief aide and head of protocol for the Indonesian defence minister, told The Telegraph that virginity tests were a central aspect of recruitment….