LHC declares the two-finger virginity test as illegal

Lahore, 4th January: The Lahore High Court (LHC) does away with the obsolete two-finger virginity test for sexual assault survivors.

Baaghi TV: LHC on Monday declared virginity tests, including the two-finger test (TFT) for the examination of sexual assault survivors as illegal and against the Constitution.

The Lahore High Court said the TFT test had no forensic value in cases of sexual violence.

According to reports gathered from Dawn News, Justice Ayesha A. Malik wrote in a 30-page judgement that the virginity test ‘offends the dignity of the female victim’ and was contradictory to Article 9 and Article 14 of the Constitution, which are related to the security and dignity of a person.

As per the judgement declared, the virginity tests are discriminatory against the female victim as they are carried out on the basis of their gender and therefore offend Article 25 of the Constitution.

The judge issued orders to the federal and provincial governments to take necessary steps to ensure that virginity tests are not carried out in the medico-legal examination of the victims of rape and sexual abuse.

She also directed the Punjab government to devise “appropriate medico-legal protocol and guidelines and standard operating procedures” according to established international practices to “recognise and manage sensitively the care of victims of sexual violence”.

While directing the Punjab Government to device appropriate guidelines to ensure the care of the victims, Justice Malik wrote in the judgement, “This includes regular training and awareness programmes so that all stakeholders understand that virginity tests have no clinical or forensic value.”

Stay tuned to Baaghi TV for further updates!