In Indonesia, virginity tests are, unfortunately, pretty common for women who want to enter the police force or the military. The practice has long been criticized for being completely sexist, as the status of a woman’s hymen should have nothing do with one’s ability to serve (one military general said women who had lost their virginity had “low morals” and were akin to being prostitutes and therefore should not serve in the military).
While women’s rights activists in Indonesia are trying to get rid of archaic practice completely, one judge in Indonesia has sparked controversy by suggesting that all women should take virginity tests before marriage, highlighting once again Indonesian authorities’ voyeuristic tendency to want to police people’s bedrooms.
That judge is Binsar Gultom, who shot to fame in Indonesia for being one of the judges presiding over the murder trial Jessica Kumala Wongso, arguably the most widely covered court case in recent Indonesian history. Binsar recently published a book titled, The Critical Views of a Judge, released in August, in which he gives his opinions on contemporary legal issues in Indonesia.
Two of the issues he finds most pressing, based on his personal observations from presiding over cases, are high divorce rates and the prevalence of domestic violence in Indonesia. According to him, the legal minimum age for marriage should be raised from 16 to 21 for women and 19 to 25 for men so that people are more mentally ready for marriage.
Binsar also suggested that the law must preserve the purity of marriage.
“For that reason, there must be a virginity test,” Binsar wrote on page 194 of his book, as picked up by Detik.
(It’s important to note that Binsar used the term “keperawanan” in this case, a female-specific word for virginity in Bahasa Indonesia.)
“Why must this be the case? Because one of the reasons for a failed household is that marriages are forcefully carried out, women are pregnant before marriage.” he added.
Binsar’s “critical views” on this matter were met with widespread condemnation from women’s rights activists.
“This judge is super ill. The statement of this Judge Binsar is a form of discrimination against women,” said Ninik Rahayu, a commissioner for the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), as quoted by Detik yesterday.
“I propose that Judge Binsar be re-evaluated in terms of his capabilities as a judge, especially regarding his perspectives on equality for women.”
Ninik argued that such a reevaluation was necessary since the Supreme Court recently released new regulations to ensure that judges do not discriminate towards women. Some of the most relevant points in the regulations include judges being forbidden from asking about someone’s sexual background or history and being forbidden from making statements based on gender stereotypes.
Following the criticism, Binsar seems to have dug himself a deeper hole, into the abyss of ridiculousness, while trying to justify his virginity testing idea by saying they should include virginity tests for men as well. He believes that would be more fair for all but admitted that he doesn’t know how a virginity test for men would be carried out.
“It’s not fair if only women must take the virginity test. How about men? What if he’s not perjaka (a term for male virginity in Bahasa Indonesia)? Our knowledge has been developing. It’s the government’s job to detect if men are still virgins or not – this issue must be elevated (to the spotlight),” he said, as quoted by Detik today.
“Doctors or fertility specialists, (how is it) they can’t detect a man’s virginity? They must be able to, we live in advanced times.”
Well, if this proves anything, it’s that being technologically advanced doesn’t necessarily mean we can all be advanced in thought.
Binsar is not the only judge in Indonesia who holds a similar view. There are concerns that the country’s highest judicial body, the Constitutional Court, has judges with limited and conservative understandings of human rights, which could prove crucial as the court is currently reviewing a petition from conservative groups to make all sex outside marriage illegal in Indonesia. In fact, one of their judges, Patrialis Akbar, has spoken publicly about potentially criminalizing sex outside marriage using religious reasoning. However, he was last week sentenced to eight years in prison for accepting a bribe, in which some of the money was allegedly used to fund his mistress’ luxurious lifestyle.
