by Chanté Lasco*
In February 2002, Turkey issued a decree banning forced virginity testing. This followed an announcement in July 2001 by Turkey’s Health Minister, Osman Durmus, that midwife and nursing students were required to be virgins, and that testing would be used to ensure compliance. Although human rights groups and the international community welcomed news of the recent ban on virginity testing, it remains to be seen whether the practice of virginity testing will in fact cease.
As Turkey attempts to improve its human rights record in a bid for European Union membership, its government faces a tension between enduring cultural norms and international human rights standards. The prominence of certain cultural norms can cause conflicting results when the government tries to demonstrate progress by promulgating legislation without instituting additional measures, such as educational campaigns and enforcement mechanisms, to ensure that human rights abuses are not tolerated.
Virginity testing is discriminatory, highly invasive, and often involuntary. These tests involve the physical examination of a woman’s hymen for tears to determine whether the woman is still “a girl” (the term Turkish doctors use to refer to a virgin). Underlying the practice of virginity testing are cultural norms, which dictate that women who are not virgins may not be considered eligible for marriage and could bring dishonor to their families. This is especially true in rural areas of predominately Muslim Turkey. Virginity testing is thus used to prove a woman’s chastity and make her eligible for marriage. This cultural context creates a presumption that female virginity is a legitimate interest of the family, community, and ultimately, the state. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), an interview with a Turkish doctor revealed that if a woman does not bleed on her wedding night, she likely will be taken for “virginity control.” Although gynecologists maintain the status of the hymen is not determinative of one’s virginity, Turkish doctors nonetheless rely on such information when they perform virginity testing, and “passing” the virginity test is based on whether or not the hymen is torn.
