Female students in high school in Turkmenistan’s coastal province of Balkan have been subjected to mandatory virginity tests, which officials say is needed to check the morality of teenage girls.
Many female students complained that authorities did not seek their consent or their parents for the controversial tests done by gynecologists.
‘In the cities of Balkanabat and Turkmenbashi, all female students from 9th to 11th grades are being forced to undergo the gynecological examination. A list of the girls who are identified during the tests as having had sexual intercourse are being shared with the local police department and the National Security Ministry’ a man who pleaded anonymity, told RFE/RL reporters.
Police often check the mobile phones of the girls on the list to seek information about their suspected sexual partners.
‘Law enforcement officers explained that this is being done to identify and bring to justice people who have had intimate relationships with minors’, a worker in the provincial capital, Balkanabat said.
