Doctors in Sweden are performing humiliating and sometimes painful “virginity tests” on Swedish girls at the request of their deeply religious families, an increasingly common practice unveiled through video footage taken by TV4 and published by the Daily Mail.

Undercover reporters equipped with hidden cameras caught doctors pushing Swedish girls to get virginity tests in attempt to prove they haven’t had sex. The tests try to examine whether or not a girl’s hymen, a thin membrane that may stretch across the vaginal opening, is intact.

The World Health Organization and Human Rights Watch have condemned the practice, calling it “degrading, discriminatory, and unscientific.”

Virginity testing or the “two-finger” test is believed be ineffective for several reasons including that some females are born without it and it can be easily ruptured through other means such as playing sports.

This type of invasive testing is more commonly performed in countries like Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Jordan and Indonesia.

“Virginity testing is a form of gender-based violence and discrimination”

Two undercover journalists posed as an aunt and her 17-year-old niece in order to expose the “scandal,” with the footage originally shown in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Daily Mail reports.

“A third actress plays the role of an actual victim – too frightened to reveal her true identity – who has described the test carried out by her doctor as ‘torture.’”

The footage shows the aunt asking a doctor to test her niece to determine whether or not she’s had sex, while the niece verbally protests the procedure as instructed. “I don’t want to do it. You can’t do this to me,” she says.

Shockingly, after the 17-year-old actress Arezoo leaves the room, the doctor nonchalantly offers to sew the teen’s genitals until she’s married.

A separate video taken by TV4 shows a doctor saying she’s performed hundreds of virginity tests, even some on them on children.

Liesl Gerntholtz with Human Rights Watch expressed “shock” when shown the footage saying, “In a country that internationally has played a leading role in protecting women’s human rights, it was almost unthinkable to me that this would be happening in a country like Sweden.

“This has caused a storm of protest and has been much debated over the last couple of days in Sweden,” she said.

Concerned with TV4’s findings, Swedish politicians are reportedly taking up the issue with the European Parliament.

Women in Afghanistan accused of “moral crimes” are routinely subjected to the humiliating tests. Moral crimes include women trying to escape violence and consensual sex outside of marriage, according to Human Rights Watch.

“This unacceptable procedure may be performed two or three times on the same woman because of bureaucratic policies or mistakes, and is sometimes also imposed on women accused of other crimes such as robbery and assault.”

Indonesian women wishing to marry military officer must prove their virginity

“The results of these ‘virginity tests’ may carry great weight with judges, contributing to many wrongful convictions,” Human Rights Watch says.

Outrage erupted in Egypt after female protestors exposed a military doctor for subjecting women detainees to virginity tests, prompting an Egyptian administrative court to rule that such tests on imprisoned women is “an illegal act and a violation of women’s rights and an assault on their dignity.”

Though illegal, virginity testing is still conducted in Egyptian detention facilities.

Virginity testing recently made headlines in Indonesia after the military was exposed for requiring female recruits and fiancées of military officers in the Indonesian armed forces to get the embarrassing testing.

Humans Rights Watch penned a letter to the International Committee of Military Medicine and 16 member countries, as well as Maj. Gen. Daniel Tjen, the general surgeon of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, asking the practice to be immediately seized.

The general surgeon did not respond.

Indonesia’s armed forces spokesman said the military has been conducting virginity tests in all branches of the government for decades, Human Rights Watch reports.

Women applying to the military or planning to marry military officers who underwent the testing describe it as being “painful, embarrassing, and traumatic.” The only women exempt from such tests were those with “powerful connections” who bribed the military doctors.

Officers who wish to marry require a letter of recommendation from their commanders, who only issue such letters upon confirmation that the respective officer’s fiancée has undergone a medical examination, including the ‘virginity test,’ at a military hospital.

Additional sources:

DailyMail.co.uk

HRW.org

faculty.Webster.edu

HRW.org