Under Bangladeshi law, forensic experts examining rape cases must follow a government-prescribed medical examination procedure which requires them to give details of the victim’s internal organs.
The procedure, among other medical tests, includes a “two-finger test” that doctors must do to “know the condition of the hymen.” Many victims feel humiliated by this test and sometimes refrain from seeking legal support just to avoid it.
Forensic experts, as well as legal experts and women’s rights activists have been saying the test is entirely unnecessary. But doctors must do so in order to complete an investigation.
The two-finger test is used to “gauge” if a woman who is alleging rape is “habituated to sex” and if her hymen is broken, under a law enacted in 1872 when the country was under British colonial rule.
Doctors and legal experts said most of the information that the four page form seeks is completely unnecessary.
Legal experts from Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust and Bangladesh National Women’s Legal Association (BNWLA) insists that the two-finger test used must be stopped.
Fahima Nasreen, a Supreme Court lawyer and executive member of BNWLA, said: “This does not make any sense in legal process whether a victim’s hymen broke or not.”
“Problems during the medical examination are the major challenge for a rape victim to get justice,” she added.
According to the existing laws, a rapist can be punished on rape charges for any attempted rape even if the victim’s hymen is not broken.
Habibuzzaman Chowdhury, head of forensic medicine at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, said: “If the victim is a married, middle-aged or a woman who has conceived multiple times then how could this test help find any evidence?”
“We are concerned about this matter as the test has no evidential value or scientific merit,” he said.
Last February 100 experts including rights activists, doctors and legal experts urged the government to ban the “demeaning physical examinations” of rape victims, saying the procedure was of no benefit in proving whether an assault had taken place or not. A statement signed by these people added that the two-finger test was demeaning and did not provide any evidence that was relevant in proving the offence.
Despite all this effort, the law remains in place, causing additional duress and humiliation to women who have already been the victims of a humiliating crime.
Samina (not real name), a rape victim from Tangail, said her father was not ready to file any case as they had come to learn that doctors use their fingers to confirm sexual assaults.
“If that is the situation, justice does not make any sense to me or my family. They will test my body when I am already traumatised.”
“Our neighbours know what happened to me, and already most of them are harassing my family socially. Even in this situation, my family was ready to file a case at first but when they learned about the process, they stopped,” she said.
Meher Afroz, state minister for women and children affairs, said, “We are trying to ensure that female victims of sexual violence are examined by female doctors, rather than male. However, we cannot provide a gender sensitive test environment for victims just now.”
Asked about changing the medical test procedure, she said, “We are taking some short term and long term decisions to resolve the problem, but we do not have anything specific yet.”