Lahore (Web Desk): The Lahore High Court (LHC) has declared virginity tests, including the two-finger test (TFT) for examination of sexual assault victims “illegal and against the Constitution”.
LHC judge Justice Ayesha A Malik announced the verdict in a set of petitionsfiled by rights activists and a PML-N lawmaker.
The 30-page verdict stated that the testing methods were “unscientific having no medical basis, therefore it has “no forensic value” in cases of sexual violence.
The judgement declared that virginity tests are “discriminatory against the female victim as they are carried out on the basis of their gender [and] therefore offend Article 25 of the Constitution”.
The court directed the federal and provincial governments to take necessary steps to “ensure that virginity tests are not carried out in medico-legal examination of the victims of rape and sexual abuse”.
