Girls' 'morality tests' in Turkmenistan

Forced gynaecological examinations in schools have been introduced in some districts against teenage pregnancies. Absurd and humiliating practices that are not new in a country where the authorities arrogate to themselves the right to control all aspects of people's private lives.

Ashgabat (AsiaNews) - In the western regions of Turkmenistan, starting from the velayat (province) of Balkan, the obligation to verify virginity has been introduced for school girls, starting from middle school up to the age of 16, to obtain an evaluation of "moral purity" and avoiding cases of teenage pregnancy.

Girls who "don't pass" the exam are reported to the security services, as a school worker says. The authorities do not ask for consent from either students or families for gynecological exams, as some girls and mothers tell Azattyk.

According to the anonymous operator, "in the cities of Balkanabad and Turkmenbaši, female students in grades six to eleven must all go to the gynecologist, and those who have already had intercourse are placed on a special list at the Ministry of the Interior."

According to other sources from school facilities, the police often monitor the mobile phones of the girls on the list, to gather information on possible sexual partners. Police representatives explain that "this is necessary to identify the responsibilities of those who have intimate relationships with minors".

Furthermore, no official comments have been received from government and regional structures on the causes of the introduction of gynecological checks, but an official in Balkanabad raises the suspicion that this is linked to the increase in teenage pregnancies in the region in recent months.

In the city there were apparently six similar cases in January alone, and this information was transmitted to the ministry of education, leading to the resignation of the director of the Balkan regional board. Following this, “morality exams” were introduced throughout the region.

Virginity checks are nothing new in Turkmenistan, where the authoritarian government often claims the right to control all aspects of people's private lives. In recent years, beauty salons have been virtually banned, going underground following bans on cosmetic procedures and hair styling.

Hairdressers, manicurists and cosmetologists now only work from their own homes, counting on the silence of their customers. In particular, in the capital Ashgabat, experts in fashion trends who are able to apply false eyelashes or artificial nails are highly sought after even by very young people.

The hairdressers and salons that remain open are formally limited to regular hair cuts and simple manicure and pedicure procedures, within the limits permitted by state provisions which are never explicit or published, but always transmitted orally.

Further procedures are carried out at home or at night behind closed doors, making sure to avoid surveillance by the police. In fact, the police and security services carry out sudden inspections in schools, both to check the external appearance of the girls and accompanied by gynecologists.

Pornographic materials are searched on the smartphones of boys and girls, while girls are sent to the school infirmary for the necessary intimate checks. When non-virgin girls are found, their parents are summoned to school and exposed to public ridicule.

Sometimes the police justify themselves with the "fight against prostitution among teenagers". Turkmen women's rights activists, who have no say inside the country, condemn these practices from abroad as absurd and humiliating, and many medical experts note that such tests cannot truly determine the virginity of girls , as the private parts are subject to deterioration for different causes, and not just for sexual acts. The morality of teenagers in Turkmenistan, some local mothers anonymously observe, "cannot be preserved by returning to barbarism".

Photo: Flickr / Matthew Goulding