Brazilian Women Who Want to Be Teachers Must First Take Virginity Tests

Women in Sao Paulo, Brazil are reportedly
being forced to prove they’re not sexually
active in order to obtain long-term teaching
positions.
According to the International Business
Times , a pap smear is required to show
they don’t have any diseases, as well as
other invasive exams to prove that they’re
not sexually active.
If they’d prefer to avoid such exams, they
must submit a doctor’s certificate
confirming that they rarely, if ever engage
in sex.
The education department claims that the
tests are to ensure that candidates are in
good physical shape to prevent them from
taking any extended or frequent absences
while teaching.
“The health inspections are intended to
ensure, beyond technical ability, the physical
and mental ability of candidates to keep
their jobs for an average of 25 years,” the
department said .
It’s not just young women that are
subjected to such exams. Older women are
required to have mammograms, and men
over 40 are forced to have their prostate
tested.
While the health of an older candidate could
play a factor in their ability to teach long-
term, the subject of a women’s virginity or
sexual activeness is in no way necessary
information.
It’s merely a gross invasion of a woman’s
privacy.
One 27-year-old woman told a news site
that she was deeply embarrassed and
ashamed to ask her doctor for a note
saying she was a virgin so she could avoid
the additional tests.
Understandably, women’s rights groups
are infuriated
“It violates women’s rights. It’s very
intimate information that she has the right
to keep. It’s absurd to continue with these
demands,” Sao Paulo activist Ana Paula de
Oliveria Castro said .
Others are outraged as well. The
conservative group Catholics for the Right
to Choose claims the practice is medieval,
and Brazil’s national Special Secretariat for
Women’s Rights says it compromises a
woman’s privacy.
“The woman has the right to choose
whether to take an exam… Such policies
violate protections of human dignity and the
principle of equality and right to private lie,”
they said.
Meanwhile, the Sao Paulo bar association
calls it unconstitutional.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time women in
Brazil have been subjected to such
sexist demands. In the Northeastern part of
the country, women applying for positions
in law enforcement were forced to undergo
tests that determined whether their hymens
were torn. Thankfully, that practice has
since been shut down.
Meanwhile, the women of Sao Paulo hold
to a similar hope: That the government will
abolish this disgusting requirement.
A person’s ability to perform a job cannot
be assessed based on something as private
as their sexuality. These women (and men)
deserved to judged based on their merit
alone.