Belgian Medical Board Urges Ban on Controversial Virginity Tests

For the Order of Physicians, these certificates are not only "useless for health" but also have no "scientific relevance" and should therefore be simply refused by professionals, writes the National Council of the Belgian Order of Physicians in an opinion published a few days ago on its website.

This opinion comes after the statement published last October by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Women, calling on countries, including Morocco, to end these tests. According to this statement, it is impossible through a test to prove that a woman has had or not had sexual intercourse by simply examining her hymen. Moreover, they are not only traumatic and humiliating but they have no scientific or clinical basis. They constitute a violation of women’s rights and can have consequences on the psychological and physical well-being of the woman.

In addition to causing bleeding, these tests can, according to the statement, also be a source of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and genital infections and in some cases can lead to suicides or family tragedies if the young woman fails the test.

For its part, the Belgian Order of Physicians considers that the tests are "a useless medical act for health, without scientific relevance and heavy with potential consequences on the well-being of the patient" and can "be experienced as an aggression", leading "to discrimination between women and men, whose sexual relations escape any evaluation of this type".

"These examinations are often requested by third parties without consideration for the personal intimacy and right to privacy of the person concerned," the Order also writes, considering "that responding to a request to write a certificate of virginity has no justification".