The Indonesian Army will stop subjecting female recruits to mandatory vaginal exams, the army chief said in an interview with local reporters this week. Rights groups have long viewed the procedure as a continuation of the invasive and discredited so-called virginity test that is slowly being stamped out in many places. In an interview on Tuesday, Gen. Andika Perkasa, the army chief, said there would be “no more vaginal and cervix examinations,” and that there would no longer be an assessment of whether women’s hymens were intact. They said they hoped the move would lead other branches of the Indonesian military to change the procedure. “I had been posting stuff online for years,” said Ms. Rosabelle, now a student at Smith College in Massachusetts.

Source: New York Times August 11, 2021 11:26 UTC