An Indonesian policeman holding his shield stands guard near the Constitutional Court in Jakarta August 21, 2014. Indonesian police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters outside the country's top court in Jakarta on Thursday, as judges starte
An Indonesian policeman holding his shield stands guard near the Constitutional Court in Jakarta August 21, 2014. Indonesian police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters outside the country's top court in Jakarta on Thursday, as judges started delivering their verdict into last month's disputed presidential election. Losing candidate Prabowo Subianto has asked the Constitutional Court to overturn the election result, saying the vote in the world's third largest democracy was tainted by mass fraud. REUTERS/Beawiharta (INDONESIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW)
An Indonesian policeman holding his shield stands guard near the Constitutional Court in Jakarta August 21, 2014. Indonesian police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters outside the country's top court in Jakarta on Thursday, as judges started delivering their verdict into last month's disputed presidential election. Losing candidate Prabowo Subianto has asked the Constitutional Court to overturn the election result, saying the vote in the world's third largest democracy was tainted by mass fraud. REUTERS/Beawiharta (INDONESIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW)

Madonna's 1980s hit song Like a Virgin must probably be the favourite tune of Indonesia's national police force. Reports said that female applicants to the force are required to undergo virginity tests to confirm if they are still untouched sexually by males.

However, the group Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Jakarta on Tuesday to stop the mandatory tests which some female applicants described as a painful and traumatic procedure. They recalled being required to be naked as female medics insert two fingers inside their genitals as proof that their hymens have not been broken.

HRW said the method used by the medics is already antiquated and no longer practiced in many countries.

YouTube/Anton Garden

"Why should we take off our clothes in front of strangers? It is not necessary. I think it should be stopped," Channel News Asia quoted a 19-year-old female who had virginity test in Pekanbaru.

HRW Associate Women's Right Director Nisha Varia, who pointed out that the test harms and humiliates women, pushed for its abolition and ensure that all police recruitment offices across Indonesia stop conducting the test.

Ronnie Sompie, spokesman of the Indonesian Police, defended the policy, saying the virginity test is part of a comprehensive health test to ensure that female would-be cops don't have sexually transmitted diseases. While their Web site listed being a virgin as a requirement to be accepted, Sompie said being discovered through the test that an applicant's hymen is torn does not necessarily mean she is automatically disqualified.

HRW had been pushing since 2010 for the abolition of the virginity test, but National Police Commissioner Sri Rumiati shot back at the human rights group, asking: "Do we want to have prostitutes joining the police?"

Amnesty International considers virginity testing a violation of women's rights "because it equates a woman's worth with an aspect of her body and because of the historical use of the notion of virginity as form of sexual control."

Modern science also has developed medical procedures such as hymenoplasty which restores the hymen using a membrane with no blood supply.

YouTube/Dr. Prodigous 2.0

There are about 12,000 Indonesian female cops or 3 percent of the 400,000 national force, but the commission wants to recruit more women police officers.

Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation, appears to still have a fascination for virgins since in 2013, the proposed mandatory virginity test for all female high school students also caused a furor.

YouTube/The Young Turks