Turkish legislators are moving to ban virginity tests for women and introducing jail terms for those who carry out such examinations without legal permission, parliamentary sources said on Friday. A legislative amendment to this effect was agreed on Thursday at a session of parliamentâs justice commission, which has been reviewing changes to the penal code as part of efforts to align Turkish law with European Union norms. The draft bans virginity tests except if they are demanded by a prosecutor or a judge as evidence in criminal cases, the sources said. If a woman is subjected to such an examination without judicial permission, the persons who have forced her to undergo the test and the medics who have performed it will be punishable with a jail term of between three months and one year.
Testing women and teenage girls has been quite common among the conservative and pious masses in Turkeyâs rural parts, where virginity is seen as a matter of family honor. But in 1999 the justice ministry issued a circular restricting the practice to gathering evidence in court cases after five girls attempted suicide in a state-run orphanage after being forced to undergo the tests because they had returned late to their boarding house. Before the circular, school principals were able to force the test on girls suspected of engaging in premarital sex under disciplinary regulations requiring chastity for female students. Young women about to be married occasionally resort to surgery to repair damaged hymens so as to âproveâ their virginity. If the amendment drafted by the justice commission is adopted, it will be the first time that the ban on virginity tests is included in the penal code. |