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Female army recruits in Indonesia have to undergo shocking virginity testing if they want to join up - to protect 'national security'.

Women face the humiliating 'two-finger test', where a doctor deduces whether the hymen has been broken.

But the checks have been slammed by human rights activists, who branded them "bonkers, primitive and unscientific".

Human Rights Watch (HRW) say they've left many recruits traumatised and have no bearing on a woman's ability to perform her job.

They are obligatory for female military and national police recruits, who are typically high school graduates aged between 18 and 20.

(Image: Getty)

HRW's research indicates that the air force, army and navy have for decades also used the test on the fiancées of military officers before marriage, as well as local governments and the civil service.

In February, officials in Jember, East Java, scrapped a plan to make high school girls be tested before they could graduate from high school.

But the World Health Organisation said: "There is no place for virginity testing; it has no scientific validity."

They say a hymen may vary in size for many reasons unrelated to sex. It partly covers the vaginal opening and does not "seal it like a door".

Andreas Harsono was one of the HRW researchers who interviewed 11 Indonesian women, who were all military wives and female officers.

On one occasion, when a woman told others waiting outside an examination room what had been done to her, all 23 applicants left.

He said that most were embarrassed by the procedure, and many were traumatised.

A female military physician told researchers that when she performed the tests in Jakarta, she found it difficult to persuade the women to take part.

She said: "It was not just a humiliating act - it was a torture. I decided not to do it again."

But, according to armed forces information chief Major Gen Fuad Basya, it's a matter of national security.

He said: "If it is not restricted this way, then someone with a bad habit will become military personnel.

(Image: Getty)

"Soldiers are a nation's defenders. They defend a nation's sovereignty, a country's territory and security."

He told local media if a candidate had lost her virginity out of wedlock her mental state would make her unfit to become a soldier.

He said "It may be because of an accident, disease or because of a habit" - meaning sexual intercourse.

"If it is their habit, the Indonesian military cannot accept potential recruits like these."

An army wife interviewed by HRW said the rationale given to her was economic.

She said: "The military wants healthy couples.

"Military men often travel away from home. They should trust their wives."