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Only virgins are suitable to serve their country with the weapon, was the rule (archive picture)
Photo: Tatan Syuflana / dpa
The Indonesian army wants to end the controversial practice of checking female soldiers for their virginity before recruiting them.
"These investigations will now be discontinued," said the army chief of staff, General Andika Perkasa, in a video published on YouTube.
They are irrelevant for recruiting.
It was initially unclear whether the Navy and the Air Force would also abolish the practice.
The military of the Southeast Asian island state traditionally used a so-called two-finger test to determine whether a candidate was already sexually active.
The rule was that only virgins are suitable to serve their country with arms.
Soldiers' fiancés have also had to undergo the tests so far.
From now on there will only be "external examinations," emphasized Perkasa, without explaining the statement.
The chief of staff had already declared in July that the same rules should apply to women and men.
In 2014, the army justified the two-finger tests.
Human rights organizations condemn practice
Human rights groups welcomed the announcement that the army has stopped this practice.
Human rights activists have long been calling for the practice to be lifted by the entire military.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) had recently condemned the virginity tests as “gender-based violence” and “abusive, unscientific and discriminatory”.
The police in Indonesia ended the recruitment tests in 2015.
kim / dpa / Reuters