Schools to expel non-virgins

2001-07-26 07:08

Ankara - Human Rights Watch called on Turkey on Wednesday to rescind an order which authorised virginity tests on high school nursing students who were suspected of having sex.

In a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Human Rights Watch said that the order by Health Minister Osman Durmus, which would allow for virginity tests, was a "profound violation of women's human rights."

Durmus earlier this month introduced a regulation that sexually active girls studying at government-run institutions would be expelled. Girls suspected of having sex would be subjected to gyneacological examinations to check if they were virgins. Girls who were not virgins would be expelled from school and forbidden from studying at any government institution.

'I'd rather take rat poison'

The order set off an uproar in Turkey with women's and human rights groups demanding that the order be revoked.

Nursing high schools are closed until September.

Forced virginity tests on girls suspected of having had premarital sex were common until the practice was banned in 1999 after five girls took rat poison rather than submit to the tests.

"Imposition of this test on girls, and the subsequent denial of education opportunities based on test results, represent an intolerable form of gender discrimination," Human Rights Watch said in its letter. - AP

- SAPA