In a prison in Afghanistan's Balkh province, more than 200 young women and girls are plunged into the cell. The majority has been there for months, and the other for over a year. When released, he expects a future full of shame, exclusion and poverty.
No one has passed virginity testing performed by a field professional at a hospital or clinic, and that's exactly what their crime is.
Last year, under pressure from human rights activists, Ashraf Ghani, Afghan President, promised that viral forensic testing (invasive examinations that control whether hymen is damaged or not) would be banned as an official procedure. However, tests are still widely performed and the consequences for women who do not pass this test are immediate and catastrophic.
"I was in a jail in Balkh province and most of those who have not passed the virginity test and are imprisoned are between 13 and 21," said Farhad Javid, regional director of Marie Stopes International in Afghanistan.
"What I saw there was so disturbing, the conditions were so bad. More than 12 young girls in a single cell. Although supposed to be imprisoned for only three months, many are held for a year or a year and a half. When they win freedom again, families have been denied and are in a dangerous position. "
The World Health Organization considers virginity testing as degrading, discriminatory and unfounded in science. Despite this, tests are used massively to see if a woman is virgin or not.
Now, after a long and bitter war, Marie Stopes Afghanistan, in cooperation with religious leaders and local civil society, believes it has found the solution to this practice being banned in Afghan hospitals and clinics.
With funding from the Swedish government, the organization will work with doctors and nurses in health centers in every Afghan province to make sure the new policy is understood and communicated properly.
"It has been a tough road, but it seems to us a great achievement because public health policies in Afghanistan are respected by both the government and the Taliban. Go beyond the sharia law and we expect them to be respected and implemented across the provinces, "Javid says.
Verdict tests were stopped in 2016, but Javid says the police continue to arrest girls and women suspected of having sex and sending them to hospitals for forced virginity tests.
"We hope that when the police or family bring a girl to the hospital for a virginity test, this procedure is no longer offered by field professionals. In this way, the behavior of the whole community will change. "
The next step, Javid adds, is the release and forgiveness of thousands of girls and women who have been imprisoned for these tests.
According to a Human Rights Watch report from 2016, nearly half of all women imprisoned in Afghanistan - and 95% of girls in juvenile detention centers - are there for moral crimes as sex before marriage.
Source: The Guardian
