Virginity checks: What do they really prove?

Egyptian women carry banners that read "Social justice" in Arabic as they march to Tahrir Square for International Women's Day in March. An Egyptian general admitted that female protesters who were arrested were forced to submit to "virginity checks." (Photo: AP)

A senior Egyptian general says thatwomen who were arrested during a demonstration on International Women's Day in March were subjected to "virginity checks" while they were being detained by the military.

Seventeen women and about 170 men were arrested during the demonstration, in which women marched to Tahrir Square in Cairo on March 8, demanding equal rights and an end to sexual harassment. The protest became dangerous when men groped, verbally attacked, and insulted the female demonstrators, telling them they should go home where they belonged, according to Associated Press reports.

A March 23 Amnesty International report alleged that the women who had been arrested "were beaten, given electric shocks, subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers, then forced to submit to 'virginity checks' and threatened with prostitution charges." Officials had previously denied that female protesters they arrested had been tortured or forced to submit to virginity checks, but now an Egyptian general has confirmed that the virginity checks did take place—and seemed to say that the women deserved to be degraded.

"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general, who was not named, told CNN. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square."

The general also told CNN: "We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place." According to the virginity checks they conducted, he added, "None of them were."

Virginity tests can be visual (looking to see whether the hymen is intact) or physical (checking the vaginal muscles' resistance to penetration). Both types of test are highly inaccurate and subjective, and can be a form of sexual assault in and of themselves. The idea that Egyptian soldiers could be absolved of rape as long as the captives are not virgins has sparked outrage around the world.

"This general's implication that only virgins can be victims of rape is a long-discredited sexist attitude and legal absurdity," Amnesty International said in a statement today. "When determining a case of rape, it is irrelevant whether or not the victim is a virgin."

Salwa Hosseini, a 20-year-old hairdresser, told Amnesty International that soldiers tied her up, forced her to the ground, slapped her, and shocked her with a stun gun while calling her a prostitute. Then she and 16 other female prisoners were taken to a military detention center in Heikstep, she said, where they were forced to comply with virginity tests administered by a male doctor while several soldiers stood nearby. If they resisted, they were told they would be shocked again with stun guns.

"When we went to the military prison, me and the girls, we were placed in a room with two doors and a window. The two doors were wide open," Hosseini said during a news conference in March. "The girl takes off all her clothes to be searched while there were cameras outside filming... The girl who says she is single, she undergoes a test by someone; we don't know if he is a soldier or some kid on their behalf."

According to the Amnesty International report, one woman who had said she was a virgin was beaten and given electric shocks after her examination seemed to show that she wasn't a virgin.

But the point of a virginity test isn't really to confirm virginity. The point is to instill fear, assert power, and enforce control—and the women who were subjected to the tests knew it.

"They wanted to teach us a lesson," Hosseini said. "They wanted to make us feel that we do not have dignity."