I was forced to do a virginity test
On Friday, we ran the story below the dashes.
One female teen reader responded with the following. We’ll call her Shanice (name changed on request). Shanice was one of two who told their story, but she was the only one who was okay with it being published.
“I was ‘tested’ to see whether I was a virgin when I was thirteen years old.
This ‘test’ was ordered by my mother after a supposedly well-meaning aunt saw me talking with a guy one evening outside my house. She assumed it was my boyfriend and told my father…
She decided to let the “professionals” handle it.
They sent my sister with me to the doctor the next day. I still wasn’t talking to anyone. Thankfully it was a female doctor, although it didn’t do much to dispel my fears. To be honest I felt like the whole thing was an act to get me to confess if I’d had sex with the guy, but I realized it wasn’t when the doctor told my sister she would perform the exam for $4,000.
I panicked. I immediately started crying. I asked to use the bathroom, but changed my mind when the doctor said “you can’t reverse anything that you did now young lady.”
I decided to pour hatred on her through my eyes while she engaged my sister in a conversation about previous clients who she “tested”, and one in particular that she refused to test because she thought she was a virgin, but months later turned out to be pregnant.
I did not want to do it. I was scared out of my mind. She told me to take off all the clothes on my lower body and lie on the examination table. Tears rolled down my face as I did, but I still did not say a word. By this time she had gloves on, and had a flashlight of some sort.
I would not open my legs. I crossed them at the ankles and clenched them shut. She repeatedly commanded me to open them, but I didn’t budge. She tried opening them herself once, but I started screaming, and she left me alone.
She told my sister that I must have done something that I’m hiding why I was behaving that way. My sister seemed to be in agreement. That did it. I opened my legs and closed my eyes as tightly as I could. I heard her flick on the light and felt her cold hands touching me. She poked and prodded for about two minutes I guess, but it felt like an eternity.
At the end of it, her conclusion to my sister was ‘I see signs of fondling, but apart from that, she nuh gone yet.'”
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Medics in Sweden have been carrying out ‘virginity tests’ on girls without their will, at the request of their religious families. This according to a Daily Mail article which was published two days ago.
What is even more shocking though is the fact that some of our teenAGE writers (teens themselves) reported this happening to them, and others they know of, here in Jamaica.
The Daily Mail article was based on a video captured by undercover reporters who pretended to be parents and non-consenting children. What the actors uncovered was that gynaecologists were willing to carry out the exercise, even without the teen’s consent. One even said that he had done hundreds of such exams.
One real victim (called ‘Sara’ for the purposes of the article) told of being 13 and being forced to do such an exam by her religious family, after being forced to be engaged to her 15-year-old cousin.
When this story was shared in our teenAGE WhatsApp group, where we discuss articles and other ideas, several female writers said that they had heard of it happening in Jamaica. One said that she had experienced it firsthand. Another had a close friend who had been carried by her mother to the gynaecologist before the start of high school, in order to ensure she was still a virgin.
Shocked by these stories, we called gynaecologist Dr Anna-Kay Taylor-Christmas and asked her if this was common in Jamaica. She said that as far as she knows, this is not standard practice.
We also asked if it was even possible for a gynaecologist to determine if a patient was still a virgin. She said that it was possible for the hymen (membrane which partially closes the opening of the vagina) to be broken by non-sexual activity. Therefore it was a task of little utility, while ‘posing the risk of psychological damage to the child, especially without their consent.’
Finally, Dr Taylor-Christmas stated that: “Parents should be encouraged to have an open relationship with their child” rather than resorting to an examination that would make little sense.