The Bangladesh National Women’s Legal Association and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust are rightly calling for the government to abolish the so called “two fingers” test which doctors are instructed to perform on victims in rape cases.
Forensic experts have long agreed that this demeaning procedure is entirely unnecessary. The two-finger test, which is prescribed as part of the medical examination procedure for rape victims, asks doctors to “know the condition of the hymen” and to “gauge” if a woman who is alleging rape is “habituated to sex.”
The anachronistic thinking behind the rule reflects a sickening and sick mind-set that simply seeks to humiliate women, as it is wholly irrelevant whether or not rape victim is “habituated” to sexual activity.
It is self-evident that this test has no evidential value or scientific merit and causes unnecessary duress and intrusion to women who undergo it. Indeed, forcing women to undergo such a test, is essentially requiring rape victims to subject themselves to a second rape.
Yet the requirement is still legally mandated and to make matters worse, the government is even unable to ensure that female victims of sexual violence are examined by female doctors.
It is a scandal that the humiliation inherent in the test deters many rape victims from seeking legal support just to avoid it.
The “test” is an absolute disgrace and shames us all as Bangladeshis. There is no room for such an outrage in a decent society, and as long as it remains the law of the land, we have no business calling ourselves a civilised country.
