No virginity test for school leavers

Indonesian officials have dropped a plan to require female students to pass virginity tests in order to graduate from high school and apologised after sparking a public outcry, human rights campaigners said.

Habib Isa Mahdi, a lawmaker from Jember in East Java province, said last week that the district council was drafting a “good conduct” regulation that would include a virginity test as many high-school students were having pre-marital sex.

Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, last year admitted conducting virginity tests on women seeking to join the police or military even though the practice has no scientific validity, according to the World Health Authority.